A Commentary by Ellen Gannett, M.Ed.
Director, National Institute on Out-of-School Time at the Wellesley Centers for Women

The current debate on the virtues, definition, and efficacy of expanded learning opportunities (ELO) is familiar and welcome. With over 30 years in the field, I have watched the landscape of the out-of-school-time field twist and turn by the decade and I am seeing earlier ideas presented in new terminology. Back in 1982, when the inaugural director of the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST), Michelle Seligson, and her co-author, James Levine, wrote the first School Age Child Care: An Action Manual, their guiding premise was that “solutions are really to be found at the community level, and that they can best be developed by mobilizing people with similar interests to help one another.” The book emphasized a model of service delivery called “the partnership” between schools and other community groups and agencies. While it has taken decades to get here, there is promise in ELO if we can overcome previous barriers.

The partnership model of the 70s and 80s was in many ways a necessity of survival for new non-profit community based organizations (CBOs) and a cornerstone of the way they did business. Yet, substantively, afterschool programs were rarely integrated into education policy and reform efforts. CBO providers fought hard to be considered part of the education system and had to become skilled in overcoming numerous challenges for navigating relationships and turf issues with school personnel and administrations. Those that were successful provide valuable lessons for today’s partnerships.

With the No Child Left Behind Act and the huge expansion of the 21^st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) program, many of these barriers were removed. The adoption of school-community partnerships was built into the legislation, giving way to a climate where partnerships are not only valued but required to achieve high quality programming. I wish I could say that the turf issues are now behind us, but for many providers, they still exist. The good news is that we are on the threshold of a new landscape. Now school and afterschool leaders are embracing partnerships with a renewed enthusiasm (and a new name!) but with some innovative twists—expanded learning opportunities as a strategy to fully integrate schools and afterschool community based organizations into a seamless day and year.

We believe the afterschool community can help shape the vision and the reality for ELO. Rather than resist the changing landscape, afterschool providers ought to embrace the new ELO partnership movement bringing with them their rich history and expertise. For afterschool programs that have been accustomed to working independently, ELO presents opportunities for working together on planning, resource development, instruction, data sharing, and professional development that can truly benefit children and their families. As stated in the Wallace Foundation report Re-imagining the School Day: More Time for Learning, “it is high time we recognize that schools can’t do it alone. That means new ways of working.”

By joining forces, classroom teachers working shoulder-to-shoulder with afterschool practitioners, cultural institutions, summer programs, and other youth serving entities provide young people the opportunities to experience a balanced curriculum during their learning day and summer. ELO need not be only about more time, but how we use that time and how well we use that time.  From our point of view at the National Institute on Out-of-School Time, expanded learning takes partnerships to a new level and has the potential of blurring the boundaries between in-school and out-of-school time, taking advantage of many settings in the community, not just the school campus. ELO integrates the best of teaching and learning and engages youth in active learning, positive youth development, and enrichment opportunities that will inspire them to be academically successful, good citizens, physically and emotionally healthy, artistic, social, problem solvers, and lifelong learners.

July 23 - 27, 2012

Registration is open!

National Afterschool Matters Initiative

Practitioner Fellowship Overview

"It provided a professional environment for the first time where I was with like-minded individuals and provided an example of the kind of reflective community that could be created. It was great to hear other people's experiences. I still draw from the Fellowship and think back to that time."

-- Practitioner Fellow

Fellowship Offers Professional Development Support for Out-of-School Time Practitioners

The National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College and the National Writing Project (NWP), with generous funding support from the Robert Bowne Foundation, launched the National Afterschool Matters Initiative Practitioner Fellowship in September 2008.  The first two participating cities were Philadelphia through the Philadelphia Writing Project, and the San Francisco Bay Area through the Bay Area Writing Project.  The Fellowship is now established in Minneapolis and Seattle and hopes to expand to New Orleans and Pittsburgh this year.

Traditionally, the Practitioner Fellowship Program is a professional development and leadership initiative for mid-level career out-of-school time professionals.  This year we are excited to be promoting a joint school and out-of-school time model in some cities while continuing the original model in Minneapolis.  The new model will engage practitioners from out-of-school time and classroom teachers in an effort to find ways that schools and afterschool programs can better work together to serve their youth population. Participants in the Practitioner Fellowship are selected by application, and through a year-long process engage in activities that inform program quality and improve practice through reflection and inquiry.

Those selected for the Practitioner Fellowship:

• Become part of a community of practitioners. Fellows work collaboratively to study effective practices and investigate the structures in which effective practice happens – at the program/classroom, activity, curriculum, and individual levels using their own programs as the objects of study.
• Learn strategies to engage in program reflection and inquiry; Fellows learn approaches and strategies that will help them become better at program/classroom observation and analysis.
• Improve programs and practice. Fellows identify and investigate effective instructional strategies and bring these strategies back to their classrooms and/or out-of-school time programs.
• Engage in leadership activities. Fellows present their work to peers and administrators, parents and community members. They are encouraged to design and deliver workshops based on their work to share new expertise with others in the field.
• Disseminate program/classroom improvement strategies. Fellows create products including briefing papers, events, curriculum, as well as articles for professional journals.

Please note that some of the items below might differ depending on location of Fellowship you are applying for. Make sure that you refer to the site specific application.

Eligibility

• Eligible Fellows must be working part-time or full-time at a school or an out-of-school time program in the location of the Fellowship.
• Eligible Fellows must be in commuting distance to the Meeting locations.
• Eligible Fellows must demonstrate interest in reflecting upon their own teaching or work with youth, investigating, and writing about quality practices in afterschool and youth programming and schools.
• Eligible Fellows must be available for the entire Fellowship schedule. Meetings occur approximately 2x per month over the course of the academic year and significant time is needed for research, reflection and writing. This involves the same amount of time as a graduate level course. Fellows are expected to attend seminars and it is required that they participate in the writing retreat and research roundtable.
• Eligible Fellows must have a minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree and a year of experience in the field.

Stipend

Participants will be awarded a stipend of $500 at the completion of the program to cover their expenses incurred during the Fellowship.

Schedule

• Participation in program launch meeting
• Participation in twice monthly seminars
• Participation in writing retreat
• Participation in local Research Roundtable (Fall, 2013)

Application Process

Employer approval must be obtained (see Memorandum of Understanding links at right).  Please complete the Practitioner Fellowship application and return, along with the MOU, no later than the deadline on the application, by e-mail, fax, or mail to:

National Institute on Out-of-School Time
National Afterschool Matters Practitioner Fellowship Program
Wellesley College, Waban House
106 Central Street
Wellesley, MA 02481
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
fax: 781-283-3657

For more information contact: Karen Lachance, (781) 283-2507 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

NIOST is working with the Wyoming Afterschool Alliance to build the internal capacity to improve quality in a wide variety of afterschool programs using NIOST’s APAS system.

In the fall of 2011, NIOST trained seventeen programs across the state of Wyoming on APAS. Based on NIOST reports from data collected from the sites each program is working on individual action plans to improve the overall quality of their programs. In addition, fifteen experienced afterschool professionals were trained as Quality Advisors to assist the programs in their continuous program improvement efforts.

Michelle Seligson, M.Ed

Michelle Seligson was a senior researcher and Associate Director at the Wellesley College Centers for Women (WCW) where, from 1979 to 1999, she founded and directed the National Institute on Out of School Time—NIOST--dedicated to developing and improving after-school child care programs and policies for school-age children. Michelle is also co-author of several books and articles. School-Age Child Care: An Action Manual (Auburn House Publishing Co., 1982) and School-Age Child Care: A Policy Report (1983). The Action Manual was revised and re-published in 1992. Many national research and action projects were initiated during her tenure which charted a course for the fledgling field of after-school programs. Early Childhood Programs and the Public Schools: Between Promise and Practice (Auburn House Publishing Co., 1989) by Mitchell, Seligson, and Marx was the final report of a three -year study of the role of the public schools in early childhood education.

From 1999 to 2006, Seligson researched and wrote a book on the topic of emotional intelligence, relational theory, and group relations, focused on the personal and professional development of youth workers, titled Bringing Yourself To Work: A Guide to Successful Staff Development in After School Programs (Teacher’s College Press, Columbia University, 2003.) A companion to the book, a two-day training program, teaches skill-building in self-awareness and relational and group awareness.

Beginning in 2003, Michelle worked as a producer on an independent documentary about 5 women artists, “Who Does She Think She Is?” released in 2008. The film has received a number of awards from juried film festivals around the US and Canada. In 2007 she retired from Wellesley Centers for Women to concentrate on her training as an analytic candidate at the C.G. Jung Institute of Boston.

She is past president and board member of the Boston Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems, an organization affiliated with experiential learning in the Tavistock tradition of group relations conferences.  Currently she is on the Board of the A.K. Rice Institute, the national organization for group relations. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she has a small private Jungian psychotherapy practice.

Michelle Seligson M.Ed., Harvard Graduate School of Education, 1983
B.A. Simmons College, 1973; University of Chicago 1959-61
139 Cushing Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
617-497-9331

Judy Chin

Project Assistant

Afterschool Matters Journal