The YWCA of New York City is hosting programs for high school girls, femmes or gender non-conforming youth interested in leadership, social justice, STEM, activism, the arts, building their network, and/or making a difference in their community. Programs include IGNITE! Girls Giving Fellowship, Amplifying Multiple Leadership (AMP), Geek Girls, and 5 - 6 week intensives focused on building new skills including journalism and podcasting, music production, and photography. For more information, view an online brochure.

It's admissions season for New York City fifth and eighth grade students. The 2017 NYC Middle School Directory is available online by district. See the admissions timeline, research middle school programs, and find 12 choices for the Middle School Application. For student's applying to High School, there is now a new, online interactive NYC School Finder as well as a 2017 NYC High School Directory to find 12 choices for the High School Application. Visit the NYC Department of Education website to learn about enrollment options, fairs, and deadlines.

Through the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, teens in grades 7 - 12 from public, private, or home schools can apply in 29 categories of art and writing for their chance to earn scholarships and have their works exhibited and published. Additionally, this year, the Scholastic Awards and New York Life Foundation have created a special partnership to encourage bereaved teens who have personally experienced a loss through the death of a close loved one to create original works of art or writing that explore their responses to grief. The award will provide six students with $1,000 scholarships. The call for 2017 submissions is now open. Visit the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards website to learn more about local guidelines & deadlines.

The United States Census Bureau's Education Resources webpage offers trainings that show you how to find and use Census data for a variety of uses including informing your business planning, supporting grant proposals and research projects, and much more. Visit the website for a list of upcoming webinars, a library of video tutorials, and information on how to schedule classroom training. Additionally, find ready to use infographics and other resources.

Elementary school students with high levels of attendance in voluntary summer learning programs — defined as at least 20 days of a five- to six-week program — experienced benefits in math and reading according to new RAND Corporation findings from the largest research study ever conducted on summer learning. The results, reported in “Learning from Summer: Effects of Voluntary Summer Learning Programs on Low-Income Urban Youth,” are on the impact of programs during two consecutive summers. RAND researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial, comparing the results for students who participated in the program with results for students who did not. After the first summer, students who attended at least 20 days outperformed the control group in math, and the improvements persisted through the school year. After the second summer, these high attenders outperformed the control group of students in math and reading, both in the fall and in the following spring.

Asia Society's Center for Global Education convened a working group of leaders from six cities in Asia and in North America - Denver, Hiroshima, New York City, Seattle, Seoul, and Singapore - to discuss approaches to building education systems that support the development of 21st century competencies. Despite differences in the cultural and policy contexts across these six cities, there are also many common threads in how leaders approach the effort to building and sustaining a system-wide commitment to helping youth develop, practice, and master these competencies. The full reflections of this working group, including their current approaches and plans for next steps are summarized in a recently released report, sponsored by the C.S. Mott Foundation. Join Asia Society on October 6, 2016, for a special #GlobalEdChat on Twitter with report lead researcher Christina Russell of Policy Studies Associates.