About the Author: Angélica López-Cuevas is an international consultant and applied researcher focused on social impact evaluation, labor markets, education, and corporate social responsibility in Mexico. Across Latin America—particularly in Mexico—public debate about the “extended school day” has gotten stuck on the how (funding, schedules, kitchens, facilities) and lost sight of the why: securing better life trajectories. Evidence shows that lengthening the school day —even

Dr. Helen Malone is the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at the Institute for Educational Leadership. She also serves as co-chair of the GELYDA Advisory Board (USA). Over the past 25+ years in the field, I have been encouraged by the growth of two movements–community schools and extended learning (in the U.S. also known as out-of-school time learning)–their natural intersection and the opportunities the post-pandemic years have created to more intentionally link schools,

STEM education emerged at the intersection of socioeconomic imperatives, pedagogical renewal, and international benchmarking. A persistent conceptual ambiguity has complicated the global adoption and quality assurance of STEM education. Central to this ambiguity is the fundamental distinction between interpreting STEM as a transformative approach to learning—a multi. /interdisciplinary framework fostering critical engagement—and treating it as a static model focused on the pr