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Washington State faces a widening Achievement Gap. Students of color and low-income students are less likely to meet grade level standards and graduate at lower rates than their white and middle to higher income peers. Expanded Learning Opportunities (ELOs) are high-quality afterschool and youth development programs that provide innovative, hands-on learning and strive to be a part of the solution to the opportunity gap.
No single learning setting will prepare students for success; rather, an integrated approach to learning across the day, across the year, and across a student’s lifetime is required for 21st century academic and career success.
The hours between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. represent peak hours in juvenile crime and experimentation with drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, sex, and other risky behaviors.
Increase federal, state, and local support for expanded learning programs.
Utilize the Washington State Quality Standards for Afterschool & Youth Development Programs to provide guidelines for what quality should look like in a program setting.
Continue to build partnerships between districts, schools, and expanded learning programs both housed in schools and in community-based organizations.
Every Summer, Washington students lose critical academic skills. The body of research on summer learning loss reveals that young people are falling behind in school at different rates. This research attributes more than half of the achievement gap between lower- and higher-income youth to unequal access to summer learning opportunities. According to a report by the RAND Corporation, students who attend high-quality summer learning programs have positive academic and behavioral outcomes. Washington State must address summer learning loss to tackle the opportunity gap and support all students in achieving school success. 1,2
Address issues of accessibility to high quality summer programs for low income youth.
Utilize high-quality summer learning programs as an essential component of school reform and improvement.
Improve partnerships and coordination between schools, community based organizations, businesses and other stakeholders to leverage resources at the local level to support summer programs.
This fact sheet is available as a printable PDF! Print and share with parents, supporters, and policy makers to share the importance of your program in your community.