Youth Development

With 258 million children out of school and 617 million children and adolescents in school but not achieving minimum proficiency levels in reading and math, we are rapidly running out…

Part Two of a two-part series. Read Part One. Youth unemployment rates, which have steadily increased over the past decade, indicate that work has become increasingly difficult to come by…

The 2020-2021 school year has brought great uncertainty for high school students. At a time when keeping students engaged and focused on their futures is more challenging than ever, one…

Here’s a hard lesson I’ve learned working in the after-school field for nearly three decades: Often, it’s not until report cards come that parents discover there’s a problem. It’s easy…

Student activism is a hot topic at the moment, thanks in large part to the international spotlight on brave young people like Greta Thunberg and many other youth climate activists(link is external). But…

The United States is in the midst of a youth unemployment crisis, which carries serious consequences for young people and their families. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing unemployment challenges—especially for…

As a special education teacher in an inclusive classroom, Christina Ramsay knows that growing students’ social-emotional and mindfulness skills can mean the difference between meltdowns and managed emotions, self-doubt and…

This week marks a full year since many school buildings around the country closed and the pandemic changed the way our children learn. I believe it’s safe to say that…

While teachers are the navigators of a classroom, children are hardly the workers below deck. The trend today is to empower students to find their own voice and give them…

In my three years at the McCormick Foundation, I have had the privilege of working with the Democracy Schools Initiative, which has strengthened schoolwide civic learning and engagement throughout Illinois. Illinois…

Library closures hit patrons hard—especially those who relied on them as their main internet source and used them to access online educational resources. There have been several studies about how the lack…

We have been exploring how authentic public presentations of learning may lead to increased student engagement and why a campaign called Share Your Learning has been advocating for more teachers, schools, districts,…