>> next, educators discuss the impact of afterschool programs. then u.s. mayors discuss how those programs prepare students for the workforce. after that, author david horwitz communismhis views on and socialism. now, education professionals discuss the role of k-12 afterschool programs on students, parents, and the

community. this panel was part of the national afterschool summit hosted by the arnold schwarzenegger institute for state and local policy at the university of southern california. this is about 35 minutes. [applause] >> monica, i'm going to start with you and pick up on something we talked about. is this just spoiling them? i always said when i was secretary of education we have high schools that when the national decathlon and we have high schools that are like dropout factories. unfortunately, that is by zip code.re kids in poverty are not getting the same level of certified that they need. let me go to you.

you are at the largest school in the country. what do you see the role of afterschool -- it is not what school is supposed to do, but how does it get the goal set that every school district needs to achieve? >> in l.a., we're all about 100% graduation. we talk about 100% attendance, engaged their ways and communities, and it absolutely relies on an afterschool plan. ella unified has gone from 45% graduation to 75% graduation largely because we haven't proved the relationship with all students. we built 131 new schools, but we focus on personalization and decentralization. afterschool is about enhancing the services to young people. it is about somebody caring, somebody being there, but also somebody investing in you so you will learn about yourself all

day long. afterschool programs help others learn in a very positive way so you get role modeling, if it's near peer strategy, or if it's music.etic or arts and whatever that enrichment is, we're telling you we love you, we have high expectations of you, and we believe in you. even for the kids who participate in our supper program -- that means they get three meals a day on campus -- but our afterschool folks, our mentors, they are bridges. they are connectors. onlyimes they are the person that that young person would have during that time. program, we have 1200 programs on 600 sites serving over 100,000 kids every single day. yes, i'm glad we're all here because, yes, we need more. it is a strategy for academic

wellness, a strategy for social, emotional learning, and we know it works. it's good for l.a. it's good for california. it's good for the usa. [applause] >> thank you, monica. >> are also want to zoom in on english as a second language. what afterschool programs can do school programs. in going to go to the oregon superintendent of the year. helpful to the people in each state. what can they focus on? what does afterschool best focus on to help kids achieve what they need to? >> afterschool helps kids dream new dreams. [applause] for kids,difficult

especially in rural areas, to dream about careers that they have never seen, they have not been exposed to. through afterschool programming, we are able to develop long-term mentoring the a skype and other video conferencing with professionals in the fields, and that allows our students to see a different future for themselves, and we support that with the classes to build the skills and the confidence so they can move forward. my favorite example is we have a great group of people that will mentor our students with blue chalk media. as our students are able to get in editing and video skills, they are able to produce stories voices. their own the confidence that helps the students gain changes their trajectory. they no longer think of

themselves as a student in poverty, but a student at a mission, a purpose, and a path. >> thank you. i am going to go to you because not only are you one of the great think tankers, you actually have experience bringing education to southern states. from that perspective, similar question, what are the best uses of afterschool time to help kids achieve -- stay in school and on track? what can they do. >> first of all, it is great to be on the usc campus. i was never a student here, but i did grow up in los angeles, in the crenshaw district. in the early 1970's i learned to swim at a pool not too far away from here. i hear some laughter. they obviously know about the pool. it is good to be here. let me go to your question. let's be clear, afterschool programs are educational, not necessarily just academic. here's the difference -- when i learned how to swim, that was educational, but there is no test, or standardized test for swimming. when i was in st. louis i had a chance to speak to a number of students, most of them free, reduced price lunch students who are learning to play chess. last i checked there was not a standardized test for chess playing.

look at florida and look at virginia. we've got very good public schools in both states. you can have a great school, and a great afterschool program. between 3:00 until 6:00 we are building students minds, bodies, spirits, and souls. if you speak to the teachers and students, and parents, particularly parents, who say the after school program is more than just babysitting. those were the cold phrases people would say, we should be paying for them. the reality is there giving parents comfort. they are going to get access to social capital skills. they are either not going to get the seven-day school hour or to complement what they learned. for me afterschool programs ra holistic approach to building holistic children to in fact make the country great again. [applause]

>> eloi. i wanted to hear from k-12 school district leaders. now we are going to learn from the gentleman who knows community colleges. with over 2 million students. every one in the country, you are probably be best seated to understand the gaps. what are the students getting out of high school and going to community college, what are they lacking so that this audience can better understand, from your perspective, the areas afterschool might better focus on to help fill those gaps? eloi: thank you, bonnie, think you for the invitation. that is hugely important for all of higher education. the education of our students, does not begin the day they walk

into the community college or public university, it begins their first days of lives. all the way through. those that are successful, those they continue to be six acyl in the institutions are those children -- continue to be successful in those institutions are the children that were able to navigate life and learn to have a structure in place, a network in place that allows them to have a safety net, allows them to be able to progress socially. that is the biggest gaps that we have when kids come to our colleges. we know today that i high school diploma is not the default anymore to get into the workforce. we are exacerbating the challenges they will have throughout want -- life, if they're not ready for college. that readiness begins early. for us, afterschool programs building a social network in the communities that help students

with all of the skills they need to be successful in college, not just academic preparation, the life corporation. -- preparation. those of the biggest challenges we face. california community colleges, it is our privilege to accept the top 100% of students. from all lives, all backgrounds young and old, they come to our colleges. the greatest denominator is whether or not they built a network in the life that allows them to succeed in life and to succeed in life, it allows them to succeed in college and make their life easier. bonnie: i'm going to follow up on that. yes, as important as the social network is, thank you for stressing that, while afterschool cannot replace the academic teachings that regular schools should, what are -- where do you see the greatest

areas of academic weakness that exist in the student's? math, english? stem? what areas academically might you be seeing some deficiencies in some of the committee college students entering? eloi: as educators we have created standards. whether or not that makes sense, we have created them. algebra is the primary, essentially the killing fields for students of color in higher education. if there is an area of emphasis, study after study shows, if a student does not master algebra two in elementary school, in high school, their chances of succeeding in higher education are probably less than 10%. it is literally the biggest barrier to quality credential of anything else. certainly language skills, vocabulary, and as long as algebra is a gateway to a college credential we need to

focus on it. bonnie: i will pick up on that with you. i remember when i have the privilege of working with arnold and danny and starting out of the l.a. afterschool program in middle schools, is that we also heard the importance of algebra. especially middle school, it has to be fun or the kids will not stay. there not required to be there. i remember learning how afterschool programs use quote disguised learning." they would use a cooking class to teach fractions. gerard, i will go to you first. monica you also focus on this. from your perspective, what are the good -- unique ways that afterschool programs in school can help meet some of these academic gaps? gerard: several years ago my foundation sponsored a project where we interviewed 406 parents in four cities to figure out

exactly what afterschool did for their children. a majority of the parents were low income. they had their children in afterschool programs that focused on the arts and the science. some things they were getting in school, but it helps to supplement. what was particularly interesting, equestrian. why? the parent with clear, we do not own a horse. let's start with that. number to it is learning to not only how to ride a horse, but how to feel the horse. that is understanding how to feel yourself. how to work with yourself. number to the horse will gallop fast, do a calculation between start to finish. at the end of the day, the horse eats a lot of food. if you're not going to take care of the horse, how much would you put together every day and every week, it became math, science,

kinesthetics, and otherwise. this is a kid who otherwise you would assume would never understand a horse other than maybe being a bookie. my father was a bookie and l.a. so i know how that works. the mother said, this will get him out of poverty. for me, i have seen unique programs change the lives of students, but also encourage parents to go back to school. something we often don't talk about, the spillover effect. bonnie: monica, a similar question, you have one of the leading districts with an actual focus on afterschool. what you see, again, most of all these funds focus on the lower income populations, which does not have the same quality school, unfortunately as the wealthier children in those neighborhoods. what can they do, also can you pick up on what gerard said about parent involvement? everyone in education knows the more likelihood for success is to involve parents. how does after school play a

unique role in all of the above? monica: and the unified is 91% kids of color, and 84% of kids who qualify for free and reduced lunch. kids who are english learners in the neighborhood of 25%-20 8%. all through your -- 28%. all through and a unified, and we are large, the afterschool programs are amazing. things like cyber patriots, where kids are coming in and really exploring robotics. and then we win. right now we have a team in baltimore participating. that is awesome. we also have an aquatics program. it brings us a whole set of pools so kids -- it is like what you are talking about about the horse. the experience of swimming is not something that is available everywhere. our beyond the bell partners

create the experience for our kids. that is really life-changing. the other thing i want to share is we have an academic decathlon. in the world of the best of the best in l.a. unifi, we provide ways that our students benefit from each other in the learning experiences. we want to say different levels of support. if you are in english learner, the ability to spend more time speaking with people. the ability to hear more people talking in english, that is very important. if you are a poor child. a kid he was not going to -- like we heard before, your environment is not going to go beyond a few blocks from the house. when you get on a bus and you go visit a college, a football stadium, whatever the field trip is, that is just building desire, dream, efficacy because you are beginning to imagine that world for yourself.

our afterschool programs and the partners that we work with, in l.a. unified we have so many partners. we have organizations that come and say, i have resources, i have talent. i have people who care. we went to engage in school, not just the regular teachers, we love our teachers, but not just the credential kind of learning. adults with talent that want to invest in the next generation. i have to tell you, i have never medicare and who does not care about their kids. one thing i want to say -- i have never met a parent who does not care about their kids. one thing i want to say about l.a. county, kids in probation that is at an all-time low. why is that? we have better attendance. we try to eliminate the dropout factory. we still have a long way to go. we are conscious about the preservation prevention strategy. if we can keep you in school, we absolutely change our neighborhoods. if we can figure out a way to

work with our committee colleges, work with the afterschool partners, we are building that support system around you that is helping you achieve what you are. our parents want successful and supportive schools. i have to tell you, our afterschool folks, they are relentless in investing in the young people. i just think about it as a critical, it is a must-have. it is a must-have because it helps our kids, we have a hundred 80 days of schooling. we all know we need to do more. those afterschool experiences, whatever they are, however they come to your school, they always pay off. bonnie: thank you. oregon, obviously different from l.a. and california. as superintendent of the year obviously you know the importance of parental involvement.

in l.a. we were are lucky us -- lucky because we have la's best. we have afterschool all-stars focused on middle schools. we take the kid all the way through. in your experience in oregon, tell us a little bit about what the best afterschool providers in organ are doing right for elementary schools, middle, and pick up on the point that monica made. while we are all, especially some of the state leaders here support trying to get more funding from state, together getting more from federal. it leverages a lot of private dollars. monica talked about the local partners. can you address or a lumen eight or illuminates the best of what is working. collect the parental involvement peas, one of the most positive aspects is it gives all parents something to celebrate with her children. we see parents rallying around a

child. if you have a kid who has not shown a passion, how do you wrap around and support that child? after school allows every child to explore and interest. every child to develop a passion and loop the family and. -- in. the best programs offer courses for the parents. we offer ged classes and english and spanish classes in the community and many of the schools throughout oregon do that as well. that gives families the opportunity to learn together and show that learning is a forever process and really allows parents to feel like they are modeling positive behaviors for their kids. all of those factors combined give us a more educated citizenry in a community. they give us an opportunity for informal and her actions that are more positive. often school is so structured and parents can sometimes feel intimidated to have a conversation with a teacher.

if you instead say, we have been doing horticulture, we are going to have a harvest night and celebrate with a meal, would you come join us? that is a different environment and that gets parents in the door and helps them feel welcome in a school environment. they might previously a have not been so comfortable. bonnie: eloi, two questions that i have for you. one is to pick up on this partnership notion. the horseback riding, the swimming, and the value that is, to the student, maybe not academically, but educationally. the second question is, our community colleges and california -- in california are -- work-related programs, nurse degrees and other things. part of what today is about is how afterschool programs help prepare kids for the workforce. community colleges are very focused on that. the two questions, the first is, pick up on these kinds of partnerships and the value of

the horseback riding and pulls as you see it -- pools, as you see it. what are you seeing in other committee colleges that a middle school or high school could focus on to help make the college students more ready? eloi: just as noted, this is about communities coming together to support the children in the community. as trinity colleges we really believe in this approach. -- community colleges we really believe in this approach. we are not successful without partners, partners and the nonprofit world, k12 programmers -- partners, public universities all coming together and focusing on the use of the community. --youth of the community. these partnerships are going. we have college promise programs

popping out throughout the entire country. those are focused on bringing an entire community together and making a commitment to every civil child in that community that they will -- single child in that community that they will have the opportunity for a higher education. it is a wonderful time for this. we hope the federal government recognizes and supports the effort. to the other point, opportunity is about having access to, in a meaningful way, to the workforce. the workforce is very discriminating today, it discriminates against those without credentials. just as we are increasing high school graduation rates, as we should, we keep moving the goalposts. now the economy is demanding more credentials. are community colleges are focused on that. creating pathways, clear pathways from k12 through community college.

and if a student wants, onto a higher level. the more students we can put in these very clear, navigable pathways, the better off the workforce is. the better off the communities are. the healthier the state and nation are. bonnie: i am going to ring up something that can robinson did this ted talk, his belief that we are squashing creativity and our students in the k-12 schools. another opportunity for afterschool programs to come in and deal with this. let's talk about creativity. of course the math, stem, reading, standardized testing, none of that tests creativity. we all know how important that is for a well-rounded human being. monica, i will start with you. you see the need to get the test

scores up, how important is creativity? from what you have seen with a best afterschool programs, what are they able to do to help bring that back to the students lives. monica: creativity is essential. we know that we learn from our kids. our kids are not afraid of the device or jumping in the pool or getting on the horse. what is so important about the afterschool program is that we ring in support and energy to that vision. when we squash kids is when we -- that learned helplessness of i can't do it. they are telling us, i cannot do it in this kind of system. and a unified had to change to see different graduation rates. we had to embrace the learning. why is everyone showing up at the afterschool programs? whatever it is? if it is a horse or pool, or cyber patriots, dancers, gallery, those programs are full.

we don't have to beat folks down to come. we have to learn from that. part of that is also the personalization. it is moving away from the structure, what is the most important thing, living in the structure, to really be relationship. eloi, it will be so good to see you finish. we have to remember, the academic skills are one part. i believe reading is really essential. it is a life skill. it is not just that we have to do one or the other, but reading and math, it makes a difference. like social and emotional learning, i am a social worker by training, and listening. the kids who can listen can actually follow directions and get something done. what we have to do is really understand where the kids are at , build a system of support and intervention that tended to their needs. it was not one of the other.

it had to be both. creativity in los angeles, it is a way of life. the school system was the one that had to change to accept that our kids are different, the families are different, the world keeps changing so we should all just accept that. it is about helping the young person. draw out the best in them. i have to tell you the afterschool program, generally, it will be risky, but those folks were happier than the other people i saw during the day. giving themselves permission to have a good time. giving themselves permission to be human. we have to get the job done. it is true. we have to treat the adults in the program as well as we are treating the kids. that is the community that we all live in. bonnie: you are a brilliant think taker -- tanker, creativity in education, talk about that and the role in afterschool.

>> creativity influences asked bolger -- influences exposure. the number of college students and afterschool programs, tremendous, usc is an example. we had tutors come to my school, i met students from detroit. i met students from washington dc and cleveland. in florida and virginia we have a number of colleges public and private who are involved in afterschool programs. are students who are for example, in central virginia, many of them might not travel outside of a 20 mile radius, most don't own a passport. yet the superintendents received a grant from the national science foundation who partnered with universities and adults to allow students in central virginia to have conversations with students in brazil. imagine what that means for understanding the importance of

dual language. the importance of looking at geography. the parents come in saying, my kids are talking about a passport, i don't have one. what are we going to do here? it is the exposure. the exposure to folks who eat different foods than you do. who think differently. who live in different parts of the world. in states where you have people come in, partly because the military, that is important. creativity is grown by exposure and vice versa. bonnie: creativity and education, what are you seeing that is lacking and how can afterschool help? >> we continue to pile requirements on top of requirement, on top of our students. the reality is most of us who graduated from our fine universities probably could not get into them today.

we like to have cocktail discussions around creativity end what it takes to get into the universities, but the reality is we probably could not get into it today. the world that our kids live in is much more competitive. much more stress. creativity really is something that we need to foster in every single one of our classrooms. in our curriculum we need to allow people to express their creativity. we are recognizing that. certainly in our colleges. recognizing the need for infusing entrepreneurship into the curriculum to allow individuals to express their talent and creativity in ways that allow them to break the cycle of poverty. there are many ways to skin this cat. education is central. to the last thing i would say is we also have to be careful. it is easy to talk about a lack of creativity when you're at a cocktail party and we have graduated from university. again, the public schools,

allowing them the freedom, pressing against those who want to continue to promote standardized exams. allowing teachers the opportunity to receive professional development they need so we give the opportunities to those in the lowest income communities, the same opportunities given to those in the highest and come -- income communities. heidi, superintendent of the year, had he you incorporate creativity? what are the best ways afterschool programs might be able to do that? heidi: you don't need anyone to incorporate creativity for them, students are creative. we have to remove the barriers that stop them from being able to use explorer -- being able to explore. our role is to listen to the kids, follow their lead.

we have great, great examples of student ideas that have formed. we have a strong internship program built throughout the program where high school students intern in the afterschool school program and work their way up to becoming the teachers of the after school program in high school. a high school student came up with that idea. our greenhouse, a high school student came up with that. we have a race car club, that came from kids. it is always a matter of giving kids the voice and taking the time to listen to them and get out of their ways. they know how to do this. follow them. [applause] bonnie: in the limited time we have left him a rather than directing a single focus question i am going to allow each of you an opportunity, if you have one piece of advice to give to these people here from all 50 states that are afterschool champions about what they feel, each of you feel they should be focused on that could most help our kids. what would it be? gerard.

gerard: since you mentioned creativity, there is a former civil rights leader named september clark. she was a mentor to dr. martin luther king, who yesterday it was his assassination time in tennessee. she said, i like chaos because from chaos comes creativity. we are now in the middle of a conversation about financial chaos. whether or not you will have money to support your programs. let's use this is a moment of creativity. i will take them up -- a point from malcolm gladwell who did research on the italian renaissance. when he talked about all of the people we know from the italian renaissance that made it great, he said what made them great was not the fact that they were geniuses, they were not geniuses by themselves, but they became geniuses because they can together. at this moment we will do the genius thing by working together across left and right so at the end of the day it is not about left and right, it is doing the right things for kids to make sure they are not left behind economically.

from a test for me, my take away would be let's take the chaos and become creative. [applause] bonnie: i want to offer two pieces, one, celebrate your success. we all have to learn about marketing. we have to learn about talking about what works and how you are successful. the beautiful opportunity in this movement right now is that we have thousands of stories of celebration. sometimes, what we have to do as part of the adults, or videotaped a kid put it out, but talk about, let people know. let the taxpayer or no your community know, how it made sense. saying thank you is a great, great opportunity to say, wow, a crenshaw graduate, and it works. my favorite l.a. usc grad. the second thing you have to say, the second thing we have to do is talk about beliefs. if we believe that we are the

leaders then we have to talk about plan a, plan b, and plan c. in the california recession, the people of l.a. unified were amazing. employees, neighbors, allies, people stepped up. our opportunity to organize today as a community of believers is a moment that should -- what are the next 10 years going to look like? that, i would say, thank you. thank you, thank you, thank you. we need you and we rely on you. you have absolutely made a difference. bonnie: thank you, monica. l.a. usd is lucky to have you as are the children. eloi: just a brief things, first of all, i would agree with everything said, but focusing on helping these children and their parents believe. believe in themselves. believe that not only is

education something that is part of their lives, but higher education is available to them and is an opportunity for them. really working with us all to help them believe that this is in their future and part of their future. the last thing i would say is continue to do what you do your. these -- what you do here. these programs are important. an attack on these programs is an attack on our children. and attack on our children is an attack on our future. we cannot let our future be undermined because of short-term believes. [applause] bonnie: heidi, before we get to you, i want to pick up on the believe in the kids. we all know, it is -- has always been true, even now more than more so, poor kids, kids of color, get told, you are losers, you're never going to make it, get picked on and bullied, they don't hear that they will be a

winner. i know i have had the privilege over 30 years of watching arnold go to so many of these schools, and i watched just by saying -- him saying to them, we love you, you can be a winner, i watch that, what that means to so many kids. thank you for that advice. heidi. heidi: after school is a magical, magical time. it is the one time of a kid's day work you are she can begin guaranteed to be in a safe environment, receive food, and learn without barrier. we cannot look at after school as a negotiable. it is an essential element of childhood. we have to work to preserve the magic for kids. they deserve it. they need it. it is essential for the growth. bonnie: thank you. let's hear it for this group of leaders. [applause] bonnie: thank you.

at the same event, the mayors of charlotte, north carolina, and gary, indiana discuss how k-12th afterschool programs in their cities can prepare students for the workforce. this is 45 minutes. [applause] >> i was going to lead everyone in a stretch because in my secret life when i'm not doing this and not eating a mom -- not being a mom, i miss spin a spintor -- i am instructor. before we get started, i wanted to say, i had the honor of working with almost all of you in this room. after school is such a special place. and make such a difference in the lives of the kids, the families, and the communities we serve. it is a huge ripple effect. the reason we have been able to save this program and expand the program is because of all of you. it is from the tremendous