As federal funding for summer learning as a pandemic recovery strategy phases out, state governments face decisions about their future role in supporting students' access to quality summer learning opportunities. This brief is based on the full report, "How States Are Expanding Quality Summer Learning Opportunities," and summarizes…

Richard Allington reviews the nature of the reading achievement gap between students from low-income and high-income families, concluding that the limited access to children's books experienced by children from low-income families lies at the base of the problem. The fact that children from low-income families lose reading achievement every summer…

High-quality afterschool and summer learning programs are effective ways to support children and teens and accelerate their academic growth. In fact, the American Rescue Plan prioritized a significant amount of funding for out-of-school time programs because of the evidence of their effectiveness. Over the past few years, state educational…

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…

Early childhood has long been known to be a formative time in a child's development-- a time when the brain produces more than 1 million neural connections every second during the first few years of a child's life. However, there are factors at the individual and community levels that impact the development process. In communities across America,…

Since 2012, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has supported educational enrichment in rural areas by awarding over $3.3 million in grants to six outstanding organizations operating in Iowa, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. In this report, the authors combine the experiences of these organizations with findings from the…

At the inaugural conference of the American Re-ED Association in Nashville nearly 30 years ago--where this author had the first opportunity to interface with teacher-counselors from across the country--two very powerful notions became clear. One was that the participants all possessed vitality and love of fun, a quality Nicholas Hobbs called…

This article features Friends' Discovery Camp, a program that allows children with and without autism spectrum disorder to learn and play together. In Friends' Discovery Camp, campers take part in sensory-rich experiences, ranging from hands-on activities and performing arts to science experiments and stories teaching social skills. Now in its 7th…

Thirty disadvantaged gifted children in Appalachian regions of Tennessee were provided scholarship money to attend a special summer camp program. Home visits before and after the camp experience demonstrated that these children benefited from both the social and academic aspects of the enrichment program. (DB)

"Service Plus" was designed as a pilot program to employ teachers in Bedford County, Tennessee over the summer to supplement their income and to develop services the community needed. Operating every summer since 1984, the program has provided employment to teachers in positions in the local human services, parks and recreation, juvenile…

This article explores the integration of technology into community engagement and service-learning activities at Tennessee State University (TSU). We have used active learning experiences to develop action-oriented research questions that help both students and local community members connect theory with experience and thought with action through…

This State of Tennessee Annual Evaluation Report on programs, prijects, services and activities funded in whole or in part under Title I of the 1965 Elementary Secondary Education Act for Fiscal Year 1973 is organized into seven parts. Part One is an "Introduction". Part Two, "Process and Outcome of Title I Instructional…

A Tennessee program awards stipends to teachers to attend summer classes and a practicum and earn 18 hours of credit in education of children with visual impairments. The program requires that teachers have assurance from their superintendents that they will teach visually impaired students in their school systems after endorsement. (Author/JDD)

Describes Project Austin-East EXCEL, a pilot college preparatory program for inner-city minority high school students in Knoxville (Tennessee). Develops an "academic ethos" through the following components: (1) reading, writing, and foreign language program; (2) "demystification" of the college experience; and (3) career…