Education Innovation’s Best-Kept Secret? Out-of-School Time

By Carrie Wihbey, Kateshia McAfee and Laura Tavares

In the world of education innovation, there’s plenty of buzz about transformation — redesigning schools, embedding career-connected learning, centering student voice. But too often, we overlook one of the most promising and flexible spaces to make this real: out-of-school time (OST). If we’re serious about reimagining education, we need to look where the time, interest, and freedom already exist.

This summer, WPS Institute is doubling down on that belief through a new partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Newton, Waltham, and Watertown. Together, we’re launching a youth-powered Summer Leadership Institute that’s part design studio, part civic lab, and part launchpad for student purpose.

And with the near-loss of $1.3 billion in 21st CCLC grants, the stakes couldn’t be clearer: OST isn’t just “extra,” it’s a vital partner in education innovation — and one we should be investing in now more than ever. The potential is immense.

1. OST Is a Living Sandbox for School Redesign

School systems face unique constraints around staffing, scheduling, and accountability that can make rapid innovation challenging. OST environments, on the other hand, offer complementary flexibility to pilot innovative learning models that can eventually enhance what schools offer. With fewer constraints on staffing, scheduling, and testing, OST environments serve as real-world labs for redesign.

The Rennie Center’s 2024 Condition of Education Action Guide explicitly calls for rethinking:

• The Person: expanding who gets to teach and mentor youth;

• The Place: embracing open-walled schooling that stretches beyond the classroom;

• The Time: allowing learning to happen in flexible, student-responsive rhythms.

Summer and OST offer the perfect lab for this reimagining — a space where teachers, OST staff, mentors, and community partners can collaborate to reinvent what learning looks like.

Drawing on the pedagogical innovations many teachers in WPS partner schools are pioneering in their classrooms, our Summer Leadership Institute (SLI), run in partnership with three Boys & Girls Clubs, brings these ideas to life. In fact, the program is almost entirely open-walled: apart from morning check-in and end-of-day pickup at the Club site, none of the core programming actually takes place inside the BGC facility.

Instead, learning happens:

• At Bentley University, where students explore Design Your Life principles inspired by the Stanford d.school to chart their own purpose;

• At Babson College, where students partner with the Institute for Social Innovation to launch community impact projects;

• At Eastie Farm, where they dig into food justice and environmental systems—and learn about paid opportunities through the Climate Corps youth program;

• At Boston Children’s Hospital, where students tackle real-world design challenges and get introduced to the hospital’s COACH program, which offers internships and mentorship in healthcare and innovation;

• On the Charles River with the Charles River Watershed Association, where students canoe and conduct hands-on environmental fieldwork, including tracking invasive water chestnut species;

• At TD Garden, where students participate in a Lunch & Learn with professionals from the worlds of sports management, live event planning, and fan engagement—gaining inside perspective on career paths in one of the city’s most iconic venues.

• And at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation, which opened its doors as a workshop space for students to gather, build, and explore ideas in a setting rich with history and invention.

Students explore New England’s only geothermally-powered greenhouse at Eastie Farm in East Boston. What is now a thriving CSA and youth Climate Corps internship began when neighbors turned an empty lot into a community asset—offering inspiration for students’ own community impact projects.

This isn’t just field-tripping. It’s real, relevant, career-connected learning—powered by partnerships, driven by student agency, and unconstrained by classroom walls. OST programs create additional touchpoints for the innovative practices many educators are already implementing, extending learning beyond traditional boundaries.

2. The Majority of Learning Time Happens Outside School — and Opportunity Gaps Start There

Young people spend more than 80% of their waking hours outside the classroom. That’s not a flaw in the system — that is the system. But the kind of enrichment they have access to during that time is far from equal.

Higher-income kids are nearly three times more likely to join structured summer programs compared to their peers from low-income families. A landmark 26-year Boston College study followed children from birth to age 26 — and what they found is eye-opening:

• Over 90% of higher-income students experienced four or more “high-impact” opportunities — things like quality after-school programs, summer learning, and mentorship — before high school graduation.

• Fewer than 20% of low-income students had that same access.

• And the payoff? Going from zero to four opportunities increased a child’s odds of earning a college degree from 10% to 50%, and boosted annual earnings by $10,000.

  
  

This isn’t just about numbers — it’s a call to action. If most learning happens beyond school walls, then out-of-school time (OST) programs aren’t extra — they’re essential, not just for young kids but for middle and high school students too. In Massachusetts, nearly half of middle and high schoolers who want an afterschool program can’t find one. The unmet demand is massive — and growing.

3. Students Are Asking for More — and Better

Students are telling us something important: they are seeking additional opportunities to explore their interests and develop leadership skills.: According to a recent report from Rebecca Winthrop at the Brookings Institution, only 36% of middle and high school students agree or strongly agree with the statement, “At my school, I get to develop my own ideas.” This data point highlights an opportunity for all of us in education—both in schools and OST—to create more spaces for student voice and choice.

In our past work through the Summer Leadership Institute (SLI) and Innovation Everywhere Internship (IEI), we’ve seen what happens when students are invited to lead, build, and explore. Their creativity and confidence skyrocket — and they come back asking, “Can we do this again?”

The gap between what students want and what’s available is real—and growing (nearly half of high school students who want an afterschool program can't access one. And we’ve seen that hunger firsthand. We hosted a summer program for 40 students and expected maybe 20 to continue in the fall. Instead, 35 returned and brought 15 friends with them — resulting in 50 students showing up every Saturday for 13 weeks. That kind of voluntary commitment tells us everything we need to know about the demand for relevant, purpose-filled learning opportunities.

The data backs this up:

• After participating in SLI or IEI, 89–90% of students reported feeling connected, empowered, and engaged in their learning — more than double the national high school average for similar measures.

• 86% of students said the experience helped them feel excited about learning, a significant jump from baseline measures taken before the program.

• Students consistently rated the programs highly on metrics like “I feel like I’m learning a lot” and “I feel like my ideas matter.”

When given the opportunity, students are more than ready to lead. OST gives them the space to try — and thrive.

4. Students Are Growing the Ecosystem With Us

If we’re serious about reimagining education, we can’t just design for students—we have to design with them. This shift is central to the way we approach learning at WPS Institute, inspired in part by Stanford’s Liberatory Design framework. It pushes us to co-create with students—not just to solve problems, but to dismantle the power dynamics that too often shape traditional education.

The most promising innovations we’ve seen haven’t come from top-down mandates, but from students who take an idea, run with it, and bring others along.

Take STEMucation, a student-led group that creates hands-on STEM events to make science feel more accessible and fun. Their first event, The Science of Slime and Ice Cream, drew more than 25 students—and their families. Or consider FOCUS, a networking initiative created by students for students. Since launching in October, FOCUS has hosted more than 14 events connecting teens with professionals across Greater Boston. The group now has six active chapters, and as its founders have transitioned to college, they’ve passed the leadership to the next generation.

These are the kinds of experiences that can’t be captured by grades or test scores—but they can transform lives. Students from our Innovation Everywhere Internship (IEI) described how they gained leadership, agency, and confidence—not because someone told them what to do, but because they had space to figure it out:

• “Leadership isn’t just about taking charge—it’s about knowing when to step back and let others lead too.” – Logan

•  “We don’t really feel pressured because it doesn’t feel like a conventional way where they just force it into your head. They let you figure it out by yourself.” – Ola

• “IEI (Innovation Everywhere Internship) was very much our ideas being implemented. In school, it’s more like the teacher picks the curriculum. I think there needs to be a balance between the two.” – Lauyanne

When students are trusted as co-creators, they build the kinds of programs and partnerships that live beyond them—and inspire others to keep going. OST gives them the time, space, and trust to do just that.

A New Front Line for Learning

The work we're doing in out-of-school time serves as a testing ground for innovations that can strengthen the entire educational ecosystem. It’s where students show us, when given space and purpose, just how much they’re capable of. It’s where community partners, universities, and industry leaders come together around shared goals. And it's where OST programs can serve as additional equity levers, extending the important work educators are doing in schools. As we look ahead, we see OST not as a separate thread, but as a vital strand in the fabric of education transformation. Building on the foundation of excellent teaching happening in our schools, our hope is that more of us—schools, nonprofits, funders, and families—will begin to recognize its power and possibility.

Out-of-school time learning stands at a crossroads. Without strong advocacy and investment, funding cuts could strip away the very programs that nurture curiosity, confidence, and purpose beyond the classroom. OST is where the next wave of education innovation lives — and this is our moment to ensure it not only survives, but thrives.