Making the Invisible Visible – Thorny Issue #5
The Accountability Conundrum Facing Educational Equity Advocates
Tuesday, December 15th
COVID has created unexpected opportunities to challenge traditional measures of student and school success (such as attendance, course grades, standardized tests). Many of these measures are disaggregated to expose inequities. Convergent science findings challenge the appropriateness of these accountability measures for all students, but particularly for marginalized young people. But nature abhors a vacuum. Equity advocates are not going to walk away from traditional measures of educational inequity, even if they understand that the measures are flawed and unfair, unless they are convinced there are accessible, scalable alternatives. Are there ways to expand accountability measures to make science-informed alternatives more visible, feasible and available? Is there evidence to draw upon from both leading-edge schools and from community learning settings that have broadened their assessment and accountability toolboxes and used them to accelerate progress towards upending inequity?
This week’s breakout sessions will all center around the same question – How can we use early 2021 to be ready to optimize summer as a springboard to reimagined learning and development?
Each session will begin with thoughts to this question from a reactor/reactors. Please select your session based on who you would like to hear from and engage with:
- Sean Miller, Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond (VA) & Arthur Pearson, Thompson Island Outward Bound (MA)
- Maggie Hermann, New Orleans Children and Youth Planning Board (LA)
- Mary Arnold, National 4-H Council
- Caroline Shaw, The Opportunity Project (Tulsa, OK) & Caitlin Brown, ACT for Alexandria (VA)
- Marquita Stephens, Urban League Twin Cities (MN) & Erin Houston, Shenango Valley Urban League (PA)
- Superintendent Theron Shutte, Marshalltown Community School District (IA)
- Carolyn Trager Kliman, City Year (NOTE: This breakout will take a research lens)
Making the Invisible Visible – Thorny Issue #4
Acknowledging the Need for Coordination Horsepower at Every Level
Tuesday, December 8th
The difference between equal and equitable is the difference between routine and customized. Whether the focus is on ensuring equitable learning and development opportunities for one child, one group of children, one neighborhood, or an entire community, the only way to ensure success for all is to have much more information about each. No one has time to do a full 360 “ecosystem” view at every level before they make their own decisions inside their own programs, organizations, systems. Especially in rapidly changing times, we need more coordination and coherence horsepower at every level – from direct connections with families and young people to neighborhoods and their schools, to community-wide. What kind of coordination structures are currently in place – or could be – that can help all parts of the ecosystem have fuller access to the people, data, services and resources needed to move commitments to “whole child, whole school, whole community” from a mantra to a mandate?
- Success Coaches – Coordination at an Individual Level.
Carolyn Trager Kilman (City Year), Meg Pitman (Boys and Girls Clubs of America)
The only way to get to ALL is to ensure that EACH young person has the learning and development opportunities needed to thrive. In this year past, how have youth development organizations been adapting and collaborating to ensure that EACH young person is getting the supports and opportunities they need to thrive? Deploying Student Success Coaches to provide research-based social, emotional, and academic supports grounded in relationships and designed to meet each young person’s need and goals in partnership with teachers can benefit a young person. How has the Student Success Coach model improved engagement of young people and families during our current crises? What can be learned from these examples that is scalable as we move into 2021?
- Coordinating the School Level Response.
Marsha Guthrie (Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County), Vonda Daniels (Northmore Elementary School)
Community schools are one of the best-known models of school and community partnership. During these challenging times, many districts have pointed to their community schools as being equipped to more quickly and nimbly respond to the needs of their students and families. How have community schools been able to respond to the dual pandemics? How has this response leveraged all adults? What have been the biggest challenges in 2020, and what lessons are we learning that will help us connect and coordinate more effectively as we build forward together in 2021? - Strengthening Practices and Coordinating Training for Front-line Staff.
Jessica Donner (Every Hour Counts), Melissa Mister (After School Matters), and Sara Elliot (YRDC), with Priscilla Little (The Forum) and Jill Young (AIR)
Throughout 2020 we have seen how a variety of local infrastructures can support more and better coordination in service of ensuring that regardless of the setting, young people have access to and are experiencing consistently supportive and engaging learning experiences. Join a discussion of local intermediaries who share their strategies for aligning experiences across learning settings. How do you take developmental practice to scale? What training supports do you need? What kinds of coordination structures can and do support developmental practice? How can coordination support consistency of youth experiences across settings as we look toward 2021? - Children’s Cabinets and Cross-Sector Partnerships – Connecting Across the Community.
Tammy Fields (Birth to 22 Alliance, Palm Beach Country), Mary Ellen Wiggins (The Forum’s Children’s Cabinet Networks), Merita Irby (The Forum)
Children’s cabinets and cross-sector partnerships work are dedicated to improving outcomes for children and youth community-wide. To what extent have these coordinating structures been able to mount community-wide responses to changing realities in 2020? In a time of increased “disconnection,” how have they supported connections between young people, their families and community systems and supports, including with schools? What are major challenges tackled and lessons learned in 2020 will help us Build Forward Together in 2021? - How Policy Levers Can Promote Coordination.
Michael Funk (California Department of Education) & Jeff Davis (California Afterschool Network)
At both a state and local level, education policy and funding streams can serve as both a support and a hindrance to collaboration. How have districts or states responded to our current crises with flexibility in policy? What lessons might we learn from that flexibility? As we Build Forward Together, what policy and funding changes will be needed to prioritize collaboration?
Making the Invisible Visible – Thorny Issue #3
Increasing the Visibility, Belonging, and Agency of Marginalized Adolescents and Their Families
Tuesday, December 1st
School closings created immediate spikes in demands for child care for elementary school age children. This focus on supervision, however critical, diminished the broader contributions child care, after-school, out of school time and community program providers make to learning and development. It also shifted attention away from adolescents since they don’t legally need supervision but still need engagement and support. And it allowed schools to initially ignore the large numbers of teens who chose this moment to walk away from schools and approaches that haven’t served them well. Who is connecting with these adolescents, especially with the young people and families who have been most tenuously connected and historically marginalized? Vulnerable families are experiencing disproportionate health and economic impacts from COVID-19. Are the current responses up to today’s challenges and opportunities? What would it take to get a more robust equity picture for the young people and families that are most vulnerable and least visible? What are we doing to listen to and learn from young people and families at the vanguard of community and societal change efforts?
- Learning from School Administrators
Kayla Jackson & Bryan Joffe (AASA)
View the full clip (6 minutes) of school administrators describing their efforts to reach marginalized students. Share reactions to both the clip and the youth panel discussion. Discuss successful (or unsuccessful) efforts to connect/reconnect engage and empower marginalized youth that have been undertaken by schools before and during COVID. Ask about their work with other partners (community organizations, community colleges, and other systems (e.g. summer employment). Discuss what it takes to move these stories from anecdotes to practice and policy strategies. What roles to youth and families have in advancing these ideas? What role does data play (or any kind?) Would a commitment to an 18 month BFT approach help elevate solutions marginalized teens? - Listening to Student and Youth Organizers
Emanuelle Sippy (Future Coalition), Tristan Slough (Annie E. Casey Foundation Youth Fellow), & Merita Irby (Forum for Youth Investment)
How are youth in school and youth no-longer in school finding ways to push not only for education reform and innovation, but for more opportunities for youth success? How much/how well are these organizing movements connected? What’s needed to make sure youth advocates are being specific about the different realities experienced by each marginalized group? - Leveraging National Youth Organizations
Meg Pitman (Boys & Girls Clubs of America) & Mary Arnold (4H)
Have national youth organizations let adolescents down? Especially marginalized adolescents? What are they learning from their affiliates? How are they supporting the local staff, participants and families in this moment? How can they be sure they are a part of the solution, not a part of the problem? As we prepare to Build Forward Together, what can national youth organizations do to ensure that their local affiliates are working together, working with other local providers, and redoubling efforts to engage harder to reach teens? - Leading with Belonging
Priscilla Little & Alicia Wilson Ahlstrom (Forum for Youth Investment)
How do we respond to and leverage the consistent message – “we disconnected because we didn’t feel we belonged.” The “Blue Wheel Non-negotiables” start with the ideas of relationships and belonging, but what do they really mean? Are we being bold enough? How do relationships contribute to belonging? How does belonging facilitate success? How do marginalized youth thrive in places they aren’t welcomed or shouldn’t be? Why is this an important question not just for the times, but for creating equitable learning environments? - Leveling with Families
Adenike Huggins (National Urban League) & Nancy Duchesneau (Education Trust)
Relationships and contexts matter. Trust matters. Not just because of COVID. Two studies that engaged families of students of color sent the same message: Schools have to know and love their students and respect their cultures before they can be trusted to guide their social and emotional development. How can these messages and message bearers be brought to the forefront in our Build Forward Together guidance to school and community leaders? - Lifting Up Student Experiences
Gene Roehlkepartain (Search Institute)
Developmental relationships matter to adolescents AND they see and feel them differently depending on who they are, where they are, and who the adults are. The Search Institute has data on the intersection of developmental relationships, equitable environments, and SEL that we need to understand in order to address the hidden inequities in all of our learning environments – in school, in student support programs, and in youth programs. How can we use this new evidence to make the case for collecting more and better data from students about their experiences? - Linking Equity and Organizational Practices
Arthur Pearson (Outward Bound), Kate Hagner (Student Conservation Association), & Michelle Boyd-Brown (American Institutes for Research)
Reexamining ideas of equity, diversity, inclusion, and cultural relevance within youth development programs is both timely and urgent. Using examples from Outward Bound Thompson Island and Student Conservation Association, two nature-based youth programs, discuss: How do organizational systems and practices promote equity, diversity, and inclusion (e.g., staff preparation, human resources and leadership practices, instructional approaches)? How do organizations do youth-centered work and elevate and build on the unique assets and experiences young people bring? How are staff at all levels prepared to work in ways that are culturally competent and responsive?
Making the Invisible Visible – Thorny Issue #2
Empowering the Essential Adults that Work Directly with Young People and their Families
Tuesday November 24th
Most of our discussions focus on systems, organizations and programs. But settings – clubs, classrooms, camps, cafeterias – are where young people and adults come together to build relationships and co-create experiences. Who are the adults that work directly with young people throughout the community ecosystem? Where are they (schools, employment training programs, youth organizations, youth advocacy efforts, etc.)? How does where they work impact what they do? What are they saying they need to be effective during these times, especially as they are being challenged to address visible and distinct inequities? What resources and supports do they need to optimize their reach and impact? And what would taking a broader community ecosystem view to change the decisions that are being made by leaders in their organizations and systems?
- What does every adult need to know? How to use interactions to build relationships.
Tom Akiva
Abundant research suggests that relationships – which are built from everyday interactions – are the active ingredient in youth programs and classrooms. But there are huge variations in both the focus of interactions youth have with adults as well as in the consistency and intensity of the interactions (think school classroom vs. sports team vs. library). How do we help more adults activate this “active ingredient”? Can this be done in ways that connect adults across settings and systems? What are the implications of the active ingredient insight for learning and development ecosystems? - What do we know about the adults who work with youth outside the classroom? How would knowing more about them more help us Build Forward Together?
Dale Blyth, Elizabeth Starr, Deborah Moroney
Who are these “non-classroom” staff in schools and across the community? Where do they work? What do they do and how did they get into the field? What approaches to learning do they use? If we knew more, how would we use this knowledge to advocate for and support this workforce? How would knowing more about the workforce improve how we design and implement coherent 18-month, expanded day learning and development opportunities that help us close equity gaps rather than expand them? - How do we support all of the needs of the adults who serve youth and families?
Nikki Roe Cropp, Femi Vance
Now, more than ever, it is clear that we must care for youth workers, teachers and other school personnel, so that they can continue to support our youth and families. As we learn more about what youth and families need to navigate emerging health challenges and explore new approaches to learning, we need to examine successes and challenges and invest in the youth workers – one of our greatest assets alongside the teaching workforce. What can we do to focus on the whole adult in these settings so that they can focus on the whole child? Can our approaches also support teachers? - Can Investments in the OST workforce address teacher shortages and diversity challenges?
Aleah Rosario
The afterschool workforce is young, educated, diverse, and mostly women. How can we promote afterschool as a robust and viable career pathway? What state and local efforts are underway to support the afterschool workforce? Can/should these efforts be more tightly linked to the critical issues of teacher shortages and teacher diversity? Can we use these times to expand the definition of “educator”? - How can school/community partnerships support front-line adults?
Meg Pitman, Elizabeth Cushing
What do partnerships focused on supporting front-line adults look like in these times? What can we learn from them? How are school and community partners that have traditionally focused on different adult roles (e.g., teachers, youth workers, coaches, counselors) or different settings (e.g., playgrounds, ball fields, theaters, classrooms) coming to the table to make sure that we’re building the capacity of all adults on the frontline? How has this shifted during 2020, as ways of connecting are increasingly virtual, hybrid and variable? Are efforts including both professionals and volunteers? - How do we use what we know about afterschool and COVID-19 to inform Build Forward Together work?
Alexis Steines Rao
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing fundamental shifts within the afterschool field. While uniquely positioned – due to their flexibility and deep community connections – to be an essential resource to families and schools during turbulent times, these providers will not be able to respond if we ignore their need for stabilizing funding. How has the pandemic affected providers? What challenges are they facing? What are they hopeful about? We’ll dive deeper into the Afterschool Alliance survey data and discuss implications for communities creating Build Forward Together agendas (e.g. should these kinds of surveys be continued locally? Compared with findings from teacher surveys?). - Can the guiding principles for equitable whole-child design (aka the “Blue Wheel”) help make the art behind adult practice more visible?
Priscilla Little, Jaime Singer
The differences between the formal structures of school and the informal structures in community learning and development settings have implications for how practitioners are able to implement science-informed strategies that support equitable learning conditions – aka the “blue wheel.” Join a conversation about the structures that can and should vary across community learning and development opportunities and help inform a national publication on community programs design principles. What are the structures in your settings that help you apply the science? What is getting in the way of good developmental practice? How can we ensure that while settings vary, youth experiences remain consistent across settings? - The other half: How do we move beyond the “teacher/classroom default?”
Bryan Joffe, Gene Roehlkepartain
We know that all adults matter and when we think of adults in school, we often default to teachers. Half of all school staff are not teachers and the training, capacity and support of ‘the other half’, while often overlooked, are critical to ensuring youth development and success. We’ll use this breakout to begin to crowd-source examples, research and strategies for highlighting the impact these adults have on school climate, school culture and individual young people and surfacing strategies for making them more visible in our Build Forward Together guidance.
Making the Invisible Visible – Thorny Issue #1
The Indefinable “Community Partners” – Making Essential Community Assets More Visible
Tuesday, November 17th
Across the country, families and schools have sent the clear message: “We are stretched!” Meanwhile, community organizations are saying “We are here! We can help!” but they frequently report feeling invisible – not only to the schools that are seeking partners, but to each other. How can it be that organizations and programs deemed so critical to youth success can be so invisible? Who are they? What they have in common? How they work with families, each other, with schools? How do they strengthen community learning ecosystems? Can they position their diversity as an asset versus a liability? Are they doing all they can to upend inequity?
Breakout Session Options after the main discussion:
- How do we help schools and families “visualize” community partners?
Merita Irby
There is general agreement that some type of visual “closet organizer” is needed. But what we shared may not meet your needs. We need your help to fully vet it and test its utility. The goal – have a simple but comprehensive way to describe the diversity of organizations beyond schools that support learning and development that doesn’t prompt the response: But what about libraries, faith organizations, or youth-led groups? - What do we mean by “ecosystems”?
Dale Blyth, Tom Akiva, & Marijke Hecht
The term is used a lot, but also used to describe different things. What ideas does it convey that are important for us to embrace? What are the elements of a learning & development ecosystem? How much difference would it make if we really embraced ecosystem versus system thinking? Does this approach really help us upend inequity? - How do we see and hear through the eyes of youth and families?
Karen Pittman
For a wide range of reasons, we can’t assume that different types of learning opportunities are equal, or equitable, or equally desirable once we begin to look through the eyes of different groups of young people and families. What type of variation might we see from different communities, different racial, ethnic, and income groups? How might we begin to ask these questions of marginalized young people and their families? - How can we use the “Blue Wheel” to explain why community partners are critical assets?
Jaime Singer & Jill Young
There is great consistency in the way in which youth development orgs lead with relationships. But there is also variation in how they achieve the other non-negotiables…. And in how they work to support adults in their roles and foster partnerships. This variation is natural and useful, but not often well explained. Digging into a few examples may help. - What can national youth serving organizations can do in these times to make community partners more visible?
Meg Pitman & Mary Arnold
Once in a community, it becomes clear that the national brands don’t represent all of the opportunities, don’t evenly or equitably reach all of the kids, and don’t always work together or work with others. How can national YSOs incentivize local affiliates to lead the way to pull the curtains back to paint a picture of what is available, needed, and possible for different groups of young people in their communities? - What OST intermediaries are doing to make ALL community partners more visible?
Katherine Plog-Martinez
Not enough communities have intermediaries/provider networks. We need more (and we’ll spend more time talking about the role of local intermediaries linked to the coordination session). But for those communities that have them, let’s ask how and how much these intermediaries are covering “all of the territory” in the community space to support bringing together all adults, all settings, all learners. Who are their members (how diverse across the sub-types)? Who are their learners (by age group, race, income)? Where do they come together to learn? How are/could intermediaries take on more active “mapping” roles to demonstrate both inequities in available opportunities but also differences in youth and family preferences? - How do school administrators SEE communities, select community partners, help youth and families make or maintain strong connections?
Bryan Joffe & Kayla Jackson
Figuring out how to partner with the invisible “community” is a challenge when you are a part of or a leader in a very structured system. Our partners at AASA, the School Superintendents Association, have asked a small group of school administrators to be active participants and reactors in all of the sessions. Today they will ask: What does schools partnering with “community” mean? Where and when does partnering happen? How have schools reached out to/used community partners in the last six months? For what reasons? - How can Edutopia videos help school and community practitioners and leaders not only SEE how, but where and with whom learning happens?
Terri Ferinde
A picture is worth a thousand words. That’s why Edutopia (the creators of the How learning happens video series to support the SEAD Commission) accepted the challenge to film learn youth and adults in a range of OST settings. The result is 10 new videos that have been added to the mix. Come get a preview, discuss the significance of these additions, and talk about how you can amplify their use with school and OST practitioners to help increase awareness of the broader learning and development ecosystem?