Interest is growing among out-of-school time (OST) educators in integrating the arts into STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programming (e.g., Kelton & Saraniero, 2018). Arts-integrated STEM--or STEAM--programming now takes place in a wide variety of OST environments, from relatively institutional learning settings, such…

Current research has not fully explored how summer programming camps can help students increase motivation and interest to pursue computing career, and their programming knowledge. Informal CS education through summer programming camps provides K-12 students the opportunity to learn how to code through fun and interactive activities outside of…

Financial support provided by the Legislature helps to ensure Washington children have access to healthy school meals. In fiscal year 2022, the Legislature provided $11.5 million to eliminate the co-pay for reduced-price meals, support summer meal programs, provide school districts with financial support for breakfast meal service, and provide…

The COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting health and safety concerns caused the cancellation of many engineering education opportunities for high school students. To expose high school students to the field of neural engineering and encourage them to pursue academic pathways in biomedical engineering, the Center for Neurotechnology (CNT) at the…

State early childhood administrators are planning to strategically invest the federal appropriations in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) to address disruptions in children's care and learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. State leaders must consider how this one-time funding can be used effectively while understanding the context around…

One year after the COVID-19 pandemic forced state and school leaders across the nation and around the world to immediately close school buildings, the lasting impact on students is increasingly evident: Months of online learning and limited in-person interaction with educators, coaches and mentors have led to gaps in learning, and unknown…

Yakima Valley College--a two-year, Hispanic-serving institution in south-central Washington state--partnered with four-year universities, agricultural centers, businesses, and federal and state agencies to develop a streamlined undergraduate research experience in which students work closely with a faculty mentor in a science, technology,…

This report presents the findings from an independent evaluation conducted by WestEd on the Expository Reading and Writing Curriculum (ERWC). Funded by an Investing in Innovation (i3) Validation grant, the ERWC is a grade 11 and grade 12 English language arts (ELA) curriculum developed by the California State University. The independent evaluation…

This article describes the author's (an elementary school librarian) journey as she researched various bike bookmobile programs in the United States. Though the three programs had different target audiences, all the bike bookmobiles that she observed generated excitement and interest in reading. Public interest for each program was high. People…

Disciplinary literacy scholars promote text-based instruction in the service of disciplinary inquiry, and scholars of teacher education promote practice-based preparation for teachers. This study brings these scholarly communities into conversation by investigating how practice orientations in teacher education influence novice teachers' literacy…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe secondary teachers' perceptions of online learning in Washington. This was done by distributing a survey to three districts in the State of Washington to identify the advantages and challenges of online learning according to participating secondary teachers. In addition, the teachers provided…

To assess the impact of a college preparation program, district-wide changes in high-stakes test pass rates are examined, followed by an examination of specific program elements that are associated with students' score changes. Changes in pass rates for districts with and without services are compared for the Latina/o and overall student…

In this article we expand on ideas of making and maker spaces to develop Indigenous making and sharing. We draw from an ArtScience participatory design project that involved Indigenous youth, families, community artists, and scientists in a summer Indigenous STEAM program designed to cultivate social and ecologically just nature-culture relations…

Over the next ten years, more than half of all jobs will require some education beyond high school. The majority of students entering college do not earn a college credential that would give them better access to these jobs. While the Common Core State Standards should lead to more college-ready students over time, students will still need…

Although the United States is touted as a country where anyone could be successful regardless of social class or national background, upward social mobility is hard to attain. Less than one in 10 children born into poverty will reach the top of the income distribution. For many individuals, postsecondary education has historically been a way out…