To read news from the state networks or to learn more about a newly released publication please see our updated news stories below.


September

Massachusetts School-Age Coalition 8thAnnual Statewide Conference "Our Time is Now!"

The MSAC Conference is the premier event for out of school time in the Bay State - and with Leadership Day and a Middle School Track, it is sure to be better than ever! The conference will be held Friday and Saturday, November 18th and 19th, 2005 at Westford Regency Inn & Conference Center, Westford, Massachusetts.


This year, for the first time, the MSAC conference will be held over two days. The first day is a Leadership Day geared to directors and administrators with 3 tracks: Management; Policy and Advocacy and Learning in Afterschool. The General Session will be held on the Saturday, and there is also a special Middle School Track for both days.


August

The New Mexico Out-of-School-Time Network will host 3rd Annual Youth in Community Summit "Moving Quality: Connecting the Dots" scheduled for December 14-16, 2005.  The focus of this year's summit will be on moving quality across New Mexico's development field. The summit will feature expert presentations by national and local leaders, and will provide for interactive workshops and showcasing, some of which will be led by youth.


The Bridge From School to Afterschool and Back: Equity, Opportunity, Success
The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Oregon Department of Education, the National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning, School’s Out Washington, and the School Age Care Education and Recreation Program invite you to attend The Bridge From School to Afterschool and Back: Equity, Opportunity, Success October 24-25, 2005. The conference will take palce at the Vancouver Washington Hilton Hotel and Conference Center. For more information please contact Janet Frieling at 206-323-2396.


July

Preventing Bullying and Relational Aggression
The Illinois Center for Violence Prevention’s (ICVP) tenth annual conference, vision.action.change: Preventing Bullying and Relational Aggression, will focus on the issue that youth ages 8 – 15 have identified as their biggest problem This event will consist of 23 workshops looking at bullying and its prevention through lenses of culture, age, geographic context, and gender, including a parent forum and youth-led workshops. Practitioners from all sectors are invited to join other concerned adult and youth leaders for two days of skill building, information sharing, resource gathering and networking on preventing bullying and relational aggression. Keynote sessions and workshops will be led by international and local experts, as well as a track of youth-led workshops. Invited speakers include:

Dr. Marlene Snyder, Clemson University, Olweus Bullying Prevention Program

Dr. Ronald Slaby, Educational Development Center (EDC)/Harvard University

Dr. Meda Chesney-Lind, University of Hawai’i

Dr. Dorothy Espelage, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Wednesday and Thursday, September 28-29, 2005
Sheraton Northwest, Arlington Heights, Illinois

For more information on registration fee, workshops, etc., contact Radhika
Sharma at ICVP: rsharma@icvp.org; (312) 986-9200 ext. 233.


June

Moving Towards Success: Framework for After-School Programs
Framework for After-School Programs is now available from Collaborative Communications Group. The Framework is a working document developed by a committee of preeminent researchers, evaluators and program experts with funding from the C.S. Mott Foundation. It describes a theory of change approach to help guide the thinking and implementation of program goals and elements, outlines a broad range of desired participant outcomes to consider, and discusses conditions most suitable for achieving positive results that meet the needs of the after-school participants.


May

Jodi Grant Joins the Afterschool Alliance as Executive Director
Jodi Grant will be joining the Afterschool Alliance as Executive Director. Currently at the National Partnership for Women & Families, Jodi has a strong history of advocating for children and families, both in and outside of government.

Prior to joining the Afterschool Alliance, Jodi Grant worked at the National Partnership for Women & Families, where she helped successfully defend the Family & Medical Leave Act before the U.S. Supreme Court, advised the Bush Administration on proposed regulatory changes to the law, and advanced work and family initiatives at the state and national levels. She built a number of strong, enduring coalitions that brought together business, women's, children's, religious, senior, and other groups.

Jodi has held several prominent positions on Capitol Hill, where she worked closely with the business and other communities, forging broad alliances that addressed education, school safety, the digital divide, workplace and women's issues, and health care. She has learned first hand how critical it is to be able to work on both sides of the aisle in Congress and in State Houses and she has first hand experience in doing just that. She also served as liaison between a congressional committee and the National Governors' Association, working with Republican and Democratic governors.

Jodi graduated with honors from Yale University in 1990, and received her law degree from Harvard University.


The Missouri Afterschool Network Will Now be Supported by $75K Per Year From the State’s General Revenue
To read the entire House Bill No. 2 click here.


April

NGA Awards State Grant to Enhance Extra Learning Opportunities for Students
April 29, 2005

WASHINGTON— Ten states will receive grants to hold statewide governor’s summits designed to spur state-level leadership for support of extra learning opportunities (ELOs), the NGA Center for Best Practices announced here today.

ELOs provide young people ages five to 18 with a variety of activities, which promote learning and positive development beyond the traditional school day. Such opportunities include academic supports and tutoring, service learning, organized sports, homework help, arts and music, volunteering and community service. ELOs may occur before school, after school, weekends, over holidays or during the summer.

Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin will each receive $10,000 from the NGA Center, with support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, to host these ELO summits. Summits will be held during 2005 and the winter of 2006. In 2004, 12 governor’s offices hosted similar summits, which generated new public and private partners for state ELO efforts.

“Providing students with extra learning opportunities gives schools additional tools to increase student achievement,” said John Thomasian, director of the NGA Center for Best Practices. “With support from the NGA Center, national experts, and colleagues in other states, these summits will bolster ELOs’ ability to support student success, help working families and create viable communities.”

An independent national review panel chose states based on submissions that demonstrated each governor’s commitment to ELOs and summit objectives. Each summit will convene public and private leaders to devise a shared agenda for improving the quantity and quality of ELOs in the state. Summits also will emphasize opportunities for collaboration that strengthen the links between ELOs, improved student academic performance, positive youth development and supports for working families.

The federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act has emphasized holding state education systems more accountable for educating all students. NCLB requires states to improve significantly the academic achievement of all students within the next decade.

“One way states can reach this goal and narrow the achievement gap is by championing ELOs for K-12 students,” Thomasian said. “These opportunities should be an essential aspect of any education reform, workforce, youth development or prevention initiative.”

Recently, the state role in ELOs has increased significantly. Because of NCLB, states now control the federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) initiative, which awards competitive grants to local entities, including school districts or community-based organizations. Prior to NCLB, the U.S. Department of Education provided funding directly to local school districts. State administration of the program allows states to promote a cohesive ELO agenda, coordinating CCLC efforts with other supporting federal and state programs.


“NGA applauds these states for advancing the role of extra learning opportunities to improve student achievement,” said Dane Linn, director of the NGA Center’s education division. “We look forward to supporting their efforts.”


Mathematica Evaluation of 21st Century Community Learning Centers
April 18, 2005

The Department of Education and Mathematica Policy Research released the third and final phase of Mathematica's evaluation of 21st Century Community Learning Centers. To read more see the executive report.


Lt. Governor Puts Pen to Youth Legislation
April 4, 2005

The Children's Cabinet, which was established two years ago by an executive order in an attempt to coordinate government agencies dealing with children's issues, was made a permanent part of state government Friday.

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, who has headed the Children's Cabinet since its creation, signed into a law a bill establishing the cabinet in statute. Denish, who is acting governor while Gov. Bill Richardson is out of the state this weekend, also signed bills to create a new fund for youth development and after-school programs, change the Youth Council to the Youth Alliance and to tap into the Permanent Fund for small business loans.

The Children's Cabinet is made up of cabinet secretaries from 11 different departments, as well as representatives from the courts and from philanthropic organizations, Denish said.

It meets once a month, though subgroups meet more often than that.

"The goal of the cabinet is to coordinate children and youth policy across state government, reduce administrative duplication and combine resources where appropriate," Denish said. "The reason we've included such a broad spectrum of government is the realization that so many parts of government touch the lives of our children."

The bill also provides money for a full-time coordinator.

Sen. Gerald Ortiz, D-Albuquerque, who sponsored the bill, said establishing the Children's Cabinet was one of the primary goals of Children's Agenda, established two years ago by the New Mexico Pediatrics Society.

Human Services Secretary Pamela Hyde said it is important that all agencies dealing with children be working with the same information and toward the same goals.

"It became very clear to all of us very quickly that we have a Children Youth and Families Department, which is really focused on kids, but then we have an Education Department, which is all about kids, and we have my department, which, frankly, three-quarters of the clients that we serve are kids," she said. "The kids have to do with the future of the health of our state, the future welfare of our state and the future economy of our state.

"What we've been able to do is sit across the table and get common indicators about what we think should be the outcomes for our kids. And we've been able to get common data, because you can have a common indicator and have six different sets of data."

Putting the Children's Cabinet in statute means that it will remain after Richardson leaves office. It would now take another act by the Legislature to dissolve the cabinet.

"The fact that it is a bill, and we've gotten it passed by the Legislature and you're signing it today, gives us hope that it's not a one-time event," added Kurt Steinhaus, deputy secretary for education. "This is going to start something that we'll see grow and improve every year."

Other bills dealing with children signed by Denish Friday will change the name of the Youth Council to the Youth Alliance and create the Next Generation Fund, which will get $2 million in seed money to be shared with the Children's Trust Fund to leverage private funding for youth programs.

Both bills were sponsored by Sen. Cynthia Nava, D-Las Cruces, to whom Denish referred as "a champion for children."

The first bill signed by Denish will take a one-quarter percent disbursement from the Severance Tax Permanent Fund to allow the Small Business Investment Corp. to make loans to small businesses in New Mexico. The goal is for at least half of those loans to go to businesses in the rural parts of the state, Denish said.

"The board of the New Mexico Small Business Investment Corporation believes that providing assistance to small businesses in New Mexico, whether it's a one-person artisan or a very early-stage technology company in Albuquerque, providing capital is a very important function for the government to accomplish," board chairman Chuck Wellborn said. "We're helping the people who are already here. We're taking advantage of the capabilities of our own citizens.


February

The Governors Speak – 2005: An Interim Report Based on the State-of-the-State Addresses of 28 of the Nation’s Governors
February 23, 2005
To read the full report click here.