21st CCLC's
Best Summer Ever!
Design & Planning
GETTING IT ALL DONE
Evidence shows that collaborative planning can strengthen alignment between academic and enrichment activities and prepare your team to deliver a holistic and exciting 21st CCLC summer learning program. Kickstarting your plan early gives you space to incorporate feedback from youth and families and co-design the vision and goals with the teachers, enrichment partners and staff who will bring the program to life.
Tips
Conduct early, robust planning that engages site- and district-level 21st CCLC staff as well as families and teachers
Create a calendar with clear deadlines and task assignments to anchor planning
Develop a schedule that maximizes academic instruction and equips teachers with strategies to ensure time on task
If possible, hire teachers based on motivation and effectiveness rather than seniority
The Arizona 21st CCLC defines Professional Development (PD) as opportunities that are collaborative in nature and provide hands-on learning with colleagues. Annual professional development is a compliance requirement to ensure continued learning and knowledge gained about out-of-school time (OST) is ongoing.
Sample Outcomes
Year-round planning team is identified and engaged in a minimum of 1-2 meetings or asynchronous activities before winter break
90% of teachers and staff report that they were adequately trained and prepared to implement high-quality learning and enrichment activities
1. Plan the Program Master Schedule
Develop a schedule that maximizes instructional time while balancing academic learning and enrichment activities.
How will you communicate with families, teachers, and staff to ensure the calendar and daily schedule are conducive to reaching program goals?
What additional details such as busing, meal, and snack times, do you need to consider as you develop the daily schedule?
How will you organize the daily schedule to maximize learning and engagement?
What site details do you need to consider when planning your daily schedule?
2. Develop Your Approach for Staffing and Professional Development
Consider how you’ll leverage resources and tools to maximize collaborative planning and team building during synchronous professional development.
How are program priorities and vision woven into the hiring process to ensure staff are strongly aligned?
What preplanning and professional development will maximize staff readiness to deliver high-quality programming?
How can you leverage high-quality teachers and staff to inform and support professional development?
What resources including job descriptions, staff handbooks, and onboarding guidelines will best ensure staff are clear on roles and responsibilities?
3. Plan Your Instructional Approach and Select Your Curricula
Determine how program goals will translate into positive experiences that yield outcomes.
The Arizona Department of Education requires that academic activities must address the needs of schools and communities. Programs should design academic offerings based on rigorous scientific research that aligns with the measures of effectiveness to guide local grantees in identifying and implementing best practices to enhance student learning. Grantees must provide academic enrichment activities to students in core content areas such as reading, literacy, and math.
How might teachers and enrichment providers collaborate to embed social and emotional learning and program culture into academic learning?
How might teachers and enrichment providers collaborate to ensure enrichment activities complement and reinforce academic learning?
Who might inform curricula selection to ensure it addresses targeted students’ learning needs?
What program culture elements and activities can be incorporated into non-instructional time, like transitions, meals, pickup, and dropoff?
4. Set the Budget and Plan for Sustainability
Consider what partnerships and funding sources are most likely to support the program beyond 21st CCLC funding.
The Arizona Department of Education has described sustainability as the ability to continue practices, projects, or activities because structures and systems have been built during the course of the 21st CCLC program to:
Secure resources/knowledge base to continue services
Connect with stakeholders
Create mutually beneficial relationships
Showcase quality programs and services
How might you build relationships with local industries and businesses toward securing sponsorship for your program or aspects of the program relevant to their interests?
What additional funding sources such as grants, private foundations, or corporations include goals and outcomes that align with what you are already working to achieve in your summer learning program?
How will guidelines from additional funders be communicated to program leaders to ensure program alignment that maximizes funding potential?
Family Connection
What aspects of program planning present opportunities to equip families to share informed input?