ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

It is interesting that this topic has hit the list at this moment.  Next
week, the Coalition for Science After School is hosting the culminating
meeting of a project looking at after-school's role in "Pathways to Advanced
STEM Coursework."  With funding from the USDE through the National
Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning (www.sedl.org/afterschool), we
commission a literature review and three response papers.  Those papers ran
the gamut from warning about losing youth development values in favor of
more school-like activities to calling for alignment between after-school
and national standards.  I will post the papers on the Coalition's website
after our meeting next week, and I will be sure to alert this list.

As for the program that closed, I believe Youth Today will be running a
story in their July issue.  I was interviewed and basically said this:  The
intent of No Child Left Behind and similar efforts to enforce standards is
good - to help ensure that all students are given the same access to quality
education.  However, when we as educators (and our local leaders who
interpret the rules) implement education activities, we must still do what
is best for the children.  Positive youth development is supported in NCLB,
particularly through 21st Century Community Learning Centers.  However,
implementation is often overrun by pressures to meet the most publicized (
i.e., easiest to publish) measures - test scores.  One thing we can do to
change this is to publicize results that show connections between enrichment
and youth development programs and higher test scores.  The other is to urge
policy leaders to broaden measurement devices to better reflect the long
term.  Recent studies (in particular, Tai, et al., in Science, May 2006)
show that early engagement is a critical factor in eventual career choice
and is probably a better predictor than test scores.  We know you get what
you measure, so let's measure engagement as well.

Now a shameless plug - if you are interested in further efforts on this
subject, I hope you will become involved with the Coalition for Science
After School.  Our recent Blueprint suggests ways to address the challenges
of STEM in after-school (http://qt.exploratorium.edu/csas/Blueprint_Full.pdf).
We plan to continue addressing these topics in a number of ways, but, as a
coalition, we are only as strong as our members.  I hope you will all join
in!

Best,

Jason
--
Jason Freeman
Director
Coalition for Science After School
Cell: (617) 270-8729
WEB: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/csas
BLOG: http://scienceafterschool.blogspot.com/

***********************************************************************
For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.

Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.

The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html.

To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]