Expanded learning time and opportunities: Key principles, driving perspectives, and major challenges

If expanded learning is going to make a real difference, then three key principles must inform how communities overcome challenges and assure equitable access to learning opportunities. Much of today's debate is framed in the language of formal education systems--students, classrooms, schools--even though part of the expansion seeks to engage a wider range of community and family partners. In this article, the authors focus on the broader community context--a context that includes opportunities offered at school and by school staff but also those supported by a range of nonprofit and for-profit organizations and agencies. Their primary focus is on how nonformal expanded learning opportunities are viewed and incorporated as part of this debate and their role in helping ensure youth succeed. (Contains 1 table and 36 notes.)