Lessons in Adolescence

This episode features a conversation with Alec Lee and Terrence Riley. Alec is co-founder and CEO of the 35-year-old Aim High summer learning program for middle school youth. Terrence is an alumnus of the program, and now Vice President of Programs for the organization. Aim High offers a mix of academic classes and interest-driven enrichment activities for middle school students during the summers leading into, during and transitioning out of the middle grades. Like other summer learning programs in the summer of 2020, Aim High needed to pivot from its traditional in-person model to a virtual one, called Aim High at Home, which had some advantages that the program intends to keep going forward even as they steadily transition back to in-person programming.

Alec, Terrence and Jason talk about the genesis of the Aim High program, the specific components of the experience, the types of students who participate, how the organization recruits and trains its staff, which includes local teachers-in-training and also alumni of the program, and the outcomes they are seeing across academic, social and emotional domains as well as the students’ transition into high school and even longer term. They then go into the pivot that Aim High had to make to deliver programming during the pandemic, creating Aim High at Home, how they shifted the levels of emphasis on different aspects of the programming to build belonging and community, and how they ramped up training for summer educators. They also address what they anticipate this upcoming summer will look like and its outsized importance given COVID recovery efforts, and what the future of summer learning looks like longer term.

Additional Readings and Resources:

• Aim High
• Aim High At Home
• Aim High teacher programs
• “The Dynamic Effects of a Summer Learning Program on Behavioral Engagement in School,” Jaymes Pyne, Erica Messner and Thomas S. Dee., Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis, CEPA Working Paper No. 20-10, September 2020.
• “Aiming High for the Summer,” by Andrew Bauld, Harvard Graduate School of Education Centennial, 2020.
• Horizons-Upward Bound

This episode features a conversation with Aaron Dworkin, CEO of the National Summer Learning Association, the nation’s leading champion, connector and supporter of summer learning programming. Aaron has a long history in youth service and has brought a new energy and ambition to the work of NSLA. This comes at a unique moment for the field of summer learning, as the global pandemic and worries about learning loss and mental health give heightened purpose to learning opportunities this particular summer. While that is true, it is also the case that summer learning plays a big role in the learning and development for youth in any circumstance, including creating valuable spaces and relationships specific to young adolescents in middle school.

Aaron and Jason talk about the genesis and work of NSLA, where summer learning fits within the broader ecosystem of education and youth, and more about the unique features of summer learning for young adolescents in middle school. They also address the future of summer learning - in the near-term, what summer learning is shaping up to be this year as our country looks to rebuild from the pandemic and address concerns of learning loss and mental health; in the long term, how summer learning can be better leveraged as a full partner in learning and what educators at the school and districts levels can do to forge those partnerships.

Additional Readings and Resources:

• National Summer Learning Association
• Summer Starts in September guide
• New Vision for Summer School
• Coro New York Leadership Center
• Gil Noam, Director, Institute for the Study of Resilience in Youth, McLean Hospital; Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
• Values of the Game, Bill Bradley, Artisan Press, 1998.
• “Lasting Consequences of the Summer Learning Gap” by Karl L. Alexander, Doris R. Entwisle, and Linda Steffel, Olson American Psychological Review, Volume: 72 issue: 2, page(s): 167-180, April 1, 2007.
• Afterschool All-Stars
• Breakthrough Collaborative
• Generation Teach
• National Camp Association
• Boston Afterschool & Beyond
• Outward Bound Thompson Island
• Urban Libraries Council
• The 50 State Afterschool Network
• Teachers in the Parks

This episode features a conversation with Rachel Graham, Director of Programs at the Lefkofsky Family Foundation in Chicago, founded by Liz and Eric Lefkofsky. The Foundation has made middle grades a singular focus for its education funding, important in a city where young adolescents have the opportunity to apply to enroll in one of many selective and specialty high schools outside their neighborhood. The Foundation’s Success Bound program helps Chicago K-8 elementary schools use developmental science to better prepare their middle grades students to be thoughtful and planful of their futures as they make consequential decisions in their choice of high school.

Jason and Rachel talk about why the Foundation chose to focus on middle grades, how the Success Bound program came to be, how the Foundation works with educators in communities of practice to integrate the programming schoolwide, what the Foundation is learning about changes in practices, behaviors and student outcomes tied to young adolescent development and the transition into high school, and how middle school can become more central to the national education agenda, and why philanthropy should see young adolescents in middle schools as an opportunity for investment.

 *Note for transparency, the Lefkofksy Family Foundation is a funder of Remaking Middle School.

Additional Readings and Resources

• Success Bound
• Lefkofsky Family Foundation
• Science of Learning and Development Alliance
• A Nation At Hope: Recommendations from the National Commission on Social, Emotional and Academic Development, The Aspen Institute
• Chicago Public Schools high school open enrollment
• The On-Track Indicator as a Predictor of High School Graduation, University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research
• Gallup Student Poll
• The Opportunity Myth: What Students Can Show Us About How School Is Letting Them Down—and How to Fix It, TNTP, 2018.

This episode features a conversation with Lisa Harrison, associate professor of middle childhood education at the Patton School of Education at Ohio University. Lisa is a teacher of teachers, preparing professionals for middle school classrooms. She is also a researcher, with a core area of focus on young adolescent black girls, a somewhat under-addressed topic in the research literature. She has examined the influences of social context on their identity development, including common negative images of black girls compared to their white young adolescent girl peers, as well as the experiences they have in school, often affected by adult perceptions of them that are embedded in some fundamental inequities.

Lisa and Jason talk about her research that extends into the inequitable experiences young adolescent black girls have with school discipline policies; how the national dialog around race over the past several months has impacted the way she thinks about preparing her teachers-in-training, including the importance for them to engage young adolescents in racial dialog more routinely, rather than just around big moments; the latest update of the position paper from the Association for Middle Level Education, or AMLE, called the Successful Middle School, which Lisa co-authored, that outlines core attributes and characteristics for middle schools; and how educators, as well as parents and families and other caring adults in the community can use the book to improve the learning and development experience for young adolescents.

 Additional Readings and Resources

• The Successful Middle School: This We Believe, Penny A. Bishop and Lisa M. Harrison, Association for Middle Level Education, 2020.
•  “Redefining Intersectionality Theory through the Lens of African American Young Adolescent Girls' Racialized Experiences,” by Lisa Harrison in Youth & Society, Volume 49, Number 8, Pages 1023-1039, November 2017.
• “Call Me Worthy: Utilizing Storytelling to Reclaim Narratives about Black Middle School Girls Experiencing Inequitable School Discipline,” by ThedaMarie D. Gibbs Grey & Lisa M. Harrison in Equity & Excellence in Education, Volume 53, Number 3, Pages 325-341, 2020.
• “Synthesizing Middle Grades Research on Cultural Responsiveness: The Importance of a Shared Conceptual Framework,” by Brianna L. Kennedy, Kathleen Brinegar, Ellis Hurd and Lisa Harrison in Middle Grades Review, Volume 2, Number 3, Article 2, December 2016.
• Push Out: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools, by Monique W. Morris, The New Press, 2018.
• Association for Middle Level Education
• Patton School of Education at Ohio University

This episode features a conversation with Jodi Grant, Executive Director of the Afterschool Alliance, the nation’s preeminent advocacy organization for afterschool programming. A veteran of public policy, Jodi has led the group for the last 15 years. In that time, the Afterschool Alliance has produced multiple updates of its “America After 3 PM” Report, the most comprehensive examination of the afterschool field, including a recent look at some of the specific challenges and opportunities of afterschool programs for middle school aged youth.

Jodi and Jason talk about how the demand for afterschool programming, which has never been higher, is not being met with adequate funding - especially for middle and high school aged youth - the inequities in afterschool that have been perpetuated by the COVID pandemic, how afterschool plays an essential supportive role as young adolescents explore opportunities for their futures as well as navigate the complexities of the current world, and an exciting new funding opportunity specifically for middle school afterschool programs being awarded in partnership between the Afterschool Alliance and the New York Life Foundation.

Additional Readings and Resources

• Afterschool Alliance
• America After 3PM
• America After 3 for Middle School Youth
• Lights On Afterschool
• New York Life Foundation
• Aim High grant program: Supporting Middle School Afterschool Programs Serving Middle School Youth
• 21st Century Community Learning Centers
• The Missing Middle –  Federal Funding by Grade Span, Fiscal Year (FY) 2019, Alliance for Excellent Education, April 2019.

This episode features a conversation with Elizabeth Santiago, Chief Program Officer of MENTOR National, the Boston-based nonprofit that champions and advances the field of mentoring for youth. Liz’s personal experience as a young adolescent in middle school, and as a child of an under-resourced family who migrated from Puerto Rico to Boston, is a key driver in her professional work and showcases the potential that mentoring relationships can have in supporting young people who, like she once did, feel disconnected and disengaged and stop showing up.

Liz and Jason talk about the need young people have for representation of voices like their own, the gaps in mentoring opportunities for youth and ways MENTOR is addressing them, how the organization works with school systems and companies to set up and expand mentoring programs, and how to support mentors and mentees who hail from different backgrounds and communities from each other to engage in challenging conversations about our world, like racial inequity and political strife.

Additional Readings and Resources

• MENTOR National
  • “The Mentoring Effect: Young People’s Perspectives on the Outcomes and Availability of Mentoring,” a report for MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership by Civic Enterprises in association with Hart Research Associates, Mary Bruce and John Bridgeland, January 2014
  • “Social and Emotional Development in Early Adolescence: Tapping into the Power of Relationships and Mentoring Success Mentors,” Delia Hagan, Bernadette Sánchez, Jason Cascarino, Kilian White, 2019
  • Mentoring Amplifies: A New Campaign for the Mentoring Movement
  • National Mentoring Month
  • National Mentoring Summit
  • My Brother’s Keeper Success Mentors Initiative
  • Elements of Effective Mentoring
  • Black Youth Town Hall, a youth-led community dialogue aimed at supporting young people as they process recent events and the state of race relations, hosted by MENTOR and Youth Mentoring Action Network
• Reimagining Youth Work podcast, hosted by Dr. Torie Weiston-Serdan, Executive Director, Youth Mentoring Action Network
• Everyday Mentoring, The Mentoring Partnership of Southwestern PA
• National Mentoring Resource Center

This episode features a conversation with Dr. Kent Pekel, CEO of Search Institute, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit research organization focused on studying the factors that drive youth success. Under Kent’s leadership, Search Institute has engaged in a singular focus on relationships, which he and the organization see as the foundational ingredient in the learning and development of young people.

Kent and Jason talk about how Search Institute conducts its research, working in partnership with youth organizations in schools and communities to learn while also making an impact, the five core elements of relationship-building derived from this research that structures Search Institute’s Developmental Relationships framework, and the types of approaches and practical activities that educators, youth workers and parents and families can use to intentionally develop and foster positive relationships.

Additional Readings and Resources

·      Search Institute
·      Search Institute’s Developmental Relationships Framework
·      “Relationships First: Creating Connections that Help Young People Thrive,” Search Institute, 2017.
·      The 4 S’s Interview
·      “The Intersection of Developmental Relationships, Equitable Environments, and SEL” [Insights & Evidence Series], Search Institute, 2020.
·       Developmental Assets Framework
·      “Developmental Assets among U.S. Youth: 2018 Update,” Search Institute, 2018.
·      Keep Connected, a Family Engagement Program by Search Institute

This episode features a conversation with Ashley Leonard and Jen Ciok from the University of Chicago. Ashley is the associate director of the To&Through Project Middle Grades Network, an initiative within the University’s Urban Education Institute. Jen is a school coach, working with Ashley to offer middle grades educators in a cohort of Chicago public schools support in solving problems of practice specific to the middle grades, using the University’s extensive data and research resources. 

Ashley, Jen and Jason talk about some of the specific research and tools the University of Chicago has produced around young adolescent learning and development that they are able to offer their partner schools, how they selected schools to participate in the project and what they are doing to set up educators to work within and across schools on problems of practice specific to middle grades, the challenges and opportunities their school partners are wrestling with, and what they are learning that could be helpful to the broader field.

Additional Readings and Resources

• University of Chicago To&Through Project
  • To&Through Data Tool
  • Middle Grades Network Pilot Cohort webpage
  • Middle Grades Network Op-ed 
• University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research
  • On-Track Indicator
  • Teaching Adolescents to Become Learners, Camille A. Farrington, Melissa Roderick, Elaine Allensworth, Jenny Nagaoka, Tasha Seneca Keyes, David W. Johnson, and Nicole O. Beechum, June 2012
  • Looking Forward to High School and College: Middle Grade Indicators of Readiness in Chicago Public Schools, Elaine M. Allensworth, Julia A. Gwynne, Paul Moore, and Marisa de la Torre, November 2014.
  • Foundations for Young Adult Success: A Developmental Framework, Jenny Nagaoka, Camille A. Farrington, Stacy B. Ehrlich, and Ryan D. Heath with David W. Johnson, Sarah Dickson, Ashley Cureton Turner, Ashley Mayo, and Kathleen Hayes, June 2015.
  • Hidden Risk: Changes in GPA across the Transition to High School, Alex Seeskin, Jenny Nagaoka, and Shelby Mahaffie, October 2018.
  • Network for College Success

This episode features a conversation with Chris Balme, Founder of Argonaut, a new live online community that offers young adolescents opportunities for hands-on experiences to develop wisdom, kindness and real-world skill. Chris has founded a handful of successful organizations, all centered on the learning and development of young adolescents, including the Spark Program and Millennium School. His drive to build new and different opportunities for middle schoolers comes in part from his own unhappy experience in those years, and a frustration he has with the low expectations commonly ascribed to middle school.

Chris and Jason talk about Chris's strong feeling that the middle school experience needs to be more relevant for young adolescents and cater to what young adolescents are “here to do,” the advantages of creating a laboratory school in the middle grades with freedom to experiment and then share things of use to the field, his approach to translating the science of learning and development into specific educational practices, and what fuels his unsatiated entrepreneurial proclivities.

Additional Readings and Resources

• chrisbalme.com and Chris's blog
• Argonaut advisory program for middle school, built around the Essential Experiences curriculum
• Millennium School and Millennium Forum
• "Talking in Circles: An In-School, Relationship-Centered Approach," a case study on Millennium Forum in Social and Emotional Learning in Early Adolescence: Tapping Into the Power of Relationships and Mentoring, MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership, 2019: pp. 24-28.
• A. P. Giannini Middle School, San Francisco Unified School District
• Spark Program
• Chris's Reading List:
  • Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence, by Laurence Steinberg, 2015
  • Permission to Feel, by Marc Brackett, PhD, 2019
  • How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain, by Lisa Feldman Barrett

This episode features a conversation with Rob Jagers, Vice President for Research at CASEL: The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning, the leading resource for the knowledge, practice and policy around SEL. From the start of his career to his current position, Rob has had a particular interest in the role SEL plays in the learning and development of young people of color, and how it can best be seen as used as a resource to promote racial equity.

Rob and Jason talk about how young people receive SEL in different ways, and which ways are more constructive and effective than others, how focusing on SEL for adults is just as important as for youth, why the field of education as a whole needs a new paradigm for research, and why CASEL formulated guidance for schools reopening in fall 2020 - after being shut down or remote since the spring - on the foundation of relationships. 

Note that Rob and Jason talked just before the start of the 2020-2021 school year, but the guidance on meaningfully using SEL is salient now and for the foreseeable future. 

Additional Readings and Resources:

• Reunite, Renew, Thrive: Social and Emotional Roadmap (SEL) for Reopening School from CASEL
• A Nation At Hope: Recommendations from the National Commission on Social, Emotional and Academic Development
• National Commission on Social, Emotional and Academic Development: A Research Agenda for the Next Generation by Stephanie Jones, Camille A. Farrington, Robert Jagers, and Marc Brackett, with Jennifer Kahn
• The Impact of Enhancing Students' Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta-Analysis of School-Based Universal Interventions by Joseph A. Dulak, Roger P. Weissberg, Allison B. Dymnicki, Rebecca D. Taylor, and Kriston B. Schellinger
• Transformative Social and Emotional Learning (SEL): Toward SEL in Service of Educational Equity and Excellence, by Robert J. Jagers, Deborah Rivas-Drake, & Brittney Williams