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Last Saturday, NPR’s All Things Considered highlighted the serious setbacks children face when they lack summer educational opportunities, particularly students from areas of concentrated poverty. In the segment, Jennifer Davis, NCTL's President and Co-Founder, spoke to the many ways schools around the country are offsetting the summer slide through ELT. You can listen here.

In advance of its national convention, the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second largest teacher union, conducted a survey of about 1,000 parents nationwide to ask them a variety of questions related to education and schools. 

This was another busy year for ELT in Massachusetts. For our team, it was a year of growth, as we worked with over 20 MA schools this year on planning for or implementing ELT for the first time, as well as depth, as we dug deeper with the established network of state-funded ELT schools. As we wind down the year, here are a few highlights from our work in MA.

On Friday, Massachusetts Governor Patrick signed the state’s 2014 budget, which includes $14.1 million for the Expanded Learning Time Initiative (ELT). By level funding the ELT Initiative, state leaders are affirming the pioneering work of the state’s ELT Schools. 
A blog post from Jeff Winokur, a professor at Wheelock College, recently caught my eye because he addresses many of the issues that concern us here at NCTL. His post is actually a response to a piece in the Huffington Post that questions the value of the Common Core for science education.  

David Goldberg is NCTL's Director of Federal Policy & National Partnerships. 

The Obama Administration has made using high-quality ELT as a whole school reform strategy a key priority. Last week, with new guidance on the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, they cleared out obstacles, helping communities that want to choose high-quality ELT for their students.

On Thursday, the Nation’s Report Card released a new study describing the long term trends of scores on reading and math tests for 9, 13 and 17 year olds.  

As state legislators and school boards complete their sessions and schools break for the summer, we are reminded of the tremendous momentum over this past year to expand and strengthen learning time in schools.These developments are detailed in "Learning Time in America," a report issued in May by NCTL and the Education Commission of the States.

Yesterday, Boston's NPR news station hosted NCTL's co-founder and president, Jennifer Davis, and research professor in the psychology department at Boston College, Peter Gray. Listen to their conversation here.

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