Lessons for Scale and Sustainability: Year Four Report on ExpandED Schools

A new report by Policy Studies Associates examines the experiences of schools in New York City, Baltimore and New Orleans piloting the ExpandED model. ExpandED, supported in NYC by the Noyce Foundation and now STEM Next through the Frontiers in Urban Science Education (FUSE) project, features deep partnerships between schools, community-based organizations and intermediaries. Promising strategies identified included: clear and consistent messaging, the presence of a strong instructional coordinator, creative staffing patterns, joint leadership for the expanded day and teacher champions of the model. The report’s findings also suggest that the elements of an expanded day do not need to be adopted all at once for a school to take steps towards transforming the school day, but the approach hinges on the strength and depth of the partnership between the school and the community partner organization. Read the report.