In this policy brief ExpandED Schools, alongside a coalition of career readiness stakeholders, presents policy options for expanding postsecondary readiness in New York City high schools.

More time, more enrichments, more support. This is what sparks joy in learning. This is what helps curious and creative youngsters evolve into successful, confident adults.

The original intent of the STEM Education Network was to better understand the STEM professional development available for out-of-school time staff and to develop a model to deliver effective STEM training. The Pinkerton Foundation, providing a one-year $25,000 grant, challenged the organizations to include at least one collaborative project that delivered on-the-ground STEM programming to a substantial number of disadvantaged young people.

This paper reports on the promising findings of our STEM Educators Academy, an ExpandED Schools initiative where classroom teachers and after-school educators engage in joint professional development at premiere science institutions and then work together back at their schools to teach maker-design projects that spark student interest and cultivate curiosity in STEM subjects.

Policy Studies Associates (PSA) has evaluated the national demonstration of ExpandED Schools since the demonstration, supported by The Wallace Foundation and others, was launched in the 2011-12 school year in 10 schools in New York City, Baltimore and New Orleans. Over four years, the evaluation explored the approaches that participating schools took to adopting the ExpandED Schools model, in particular seeking to understand the conditions that support—or hinder—the implementation of an expanded day.

What do we do with an expanded day? Create more joy. Spark curiosity. Uncover new talents. Close the learning gap.

Here are highlights from the ExpandED Salon, where Soledad O’Brien talks with YouTube creators about the changing landscape of information access, and learns from Dale Russakoff what went wrong with Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 million gift to Newark schools.

Early astronomers reimagined time to give us an extra day every four years. We reimagine time to give kids extra learning every day of the week. By adding time and enrichments to the school day, we help close the learning gap. It’s like every day is Leap Day in ExpandED Schools.

3,800 books. That’s what our middle school students read in one year outside of the traditional school day, thanks to the help of our literacy tutors. These community members don’t just support young readers. They enhance young lives.