What we learned is that ExpandED Schools offers a powerful strategy for schools to advance their culture, foster healthy social and emotional development of young people, and promote academic progress. Over three years, as we’ve built growth mindsets in the children we educate, we have also fostered within the school communities we’ve supported a belief in their continued growth as well. These schools can assess progress and evolve, continually building skills for future success. These implementation findings are coupled with strong academic, social and emotional gains for students, and strong ratings of school climate by parents, teachers and students.

Kids singing the praises of a longer school day? Absolutely. Hear in their own words, along with educators, why expanded learning time is so important.

"At a recent national forum at the Ford Foundation in New York, 140 education and youth development professionals discussed how to better support adolescent learning. Drawing on the discussion and the latest research in neuroscience, psychology and cognitive learning science, TASC presents an action agenda that can be tailored to circumstances in your own city and state."

"The results are in: ExpandED students spend more time in English and math, and also round out their curriculum with more time for science and the arts. Enrichments such as robotics and gardening enable robust vocabulary development through new experiences. Students have more time for nutritious meals and physical movement, ensuring they are physically ready to learn. And, they have more than three extra hours per week of academic support."

This brief by TASC, Every Hour Counts and ORGE Innovation Consulting presents a strategy to create real-world science learning experiences for kids that integrate Next Generation Science Standards with social and emotional learning experiences. Leveraging external experts, community integration and project-based learning, the model builds flexible science programs in both formal and informal settings. While intended for use by New York, Boston and Providence, the Frontiers in Urban Science (FUSE) initiative cities, this brief could be useful to STEM educators, community partners and district leaders nationwide who are forging new paths to expand access to STEM learning and opportunities

"An analysis of data from the second year of TASC’s national demonstration of an expanded school day for elementary and middle school students shows that ExpandED Schools improved school culture, decreased rates of students’ chronic absenteeism and helped students develop positive learning habits and attitudes. Schools and their community partners made progress in evolving the culture of their schools to maximize the benefits of expanded time for learning. For the second year in a row, New York City ExpandED Schools outperformed citywide in rankings by parents, teachers and students of their schools’ safety, communication, engagement and academic expectations.

The national demonstration of TASC's ExpandED Schools was launched in 2011-12 in New York City, Baltimore and New Orleans. The ExpandED Schools demonstration is being evaluated by Policy Studies Associates (PSA) and is rolling out at a time when there is heightened awareness among educators, researchers and youth development experts about the importance of cultivating certain students mindsets that are precursors to academic performance.This research brief presents evidence that by working together strategically and collaboratively, schools and community partner organizations can create a positive environment that enables students to take control of their own learning and gain confidence in their ability to succeed.

Conducted by Policy Studies Associates (PSA),the evaluation of the first two years of the national demonstration of ExpandED Schools (the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years) focused on the implementation of TASC’s model and on strategies used by schools and community partners to scale up and institutionalize expanded learning. Although some challenges remain, based on the findings from 2012-13 discussed in this report, ExpandED Schools demonstrated significant progress towards implementing the model with fidelity, including moving towards an expanded day for all students in the school, strengthening collaborations, offering balanced learning opportunities and developing plans to sustain expanded learning.