The urban libraries council, in partnership with the national summer learning association and the national recreation and park association, will enhance and scale field adoption of middle school…

The Urban Libraries Council will enhance and scale adoption of middle school STEM programs and advance equity-focused summer learning models through a $766,232 project grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services' National Leadership Grants program. In partnership with the National Summer Learning Association and National Recreation and Park Association, the Council will create a peer learning cohort to pilot summer learning models in libraries, distill lessons learned into resources for nationwide use, and launch a learning challenge for libraries to pilot the models. Activities will build library capacity to deliver quality STEM and summer learning opportunities to more effectively engage tweens and strengthen local education ecosystems. The grant period is from August 1, 2021 through September 30, 2023.

The urban libraries council, in partnership with the national summer learning association and the national recreation and park association, will enhance and scale field adoption of middle school science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) programs to advance equity-focused models for summer learning. This is the second phase of a project to target hard-to-reach middle school youth with essential stem and leadership opportunities and will focus on building resources for libraries around middle school youth engagement, equity and access, summer learning, and building partnerships. Activities include creating a peer learning cohort to pilot summer learning models; distilling models, programs, partnership frameworks, and lessons learned from the pilots into a learning series and action workbook; launching a middle school and summer equity learning challenge for libraries to pilot models using the resources; creating a summer equity assessment; and disseminating resources nationally. This initiative will elevate the role of libraries as education leaders by scaling summer learning programs and partnerships so that (1) more youth can positively engage with stem during the critical tween years; (2) local government leaders, schools, and summer learning providers better understand how public libraries can strengthen the education ecosystem; and (3) libraries build their capacity to deliver quality stem and summer learning opportunities.