Keeping Students Engaged in Out-of-School Time

How Invention Education Programs Help Students Succeed

Date: November 2, 2022

On July 14, 2022, in conjunction with five coordinating partners and more than 20 national organizations, the U.S. Department of Education launched the Engage Every Student Initiative: a bold call to action for our nation’s schools to use their ESSER funding resources on high-quality out-of-school time (OST) learning to address the achievement and engagement gaps caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

With over 30 years of experience developing OST invention education curricula and witnessing firsthand its ability to inspire and engage children, NIHF supports the Department of Education’s call to action – especially those that embrace open-ended exploration.

This paper summarizes some of the major details in the Engage Every Student Initiative and dissects some of the different categories of OST programs to help educators make a more informed decision when it comes to spending their ESSER funds.

Highlights of this paper include:

• A high-level explanation of some of the key recommendations within the Engage Every Student Initiative
• A dissection of the different OST program types that includes their characteristics and implementation details
• An explanation of how invention education can solve many of needs educators are looking for when it comes to selecting a high-quality OST program