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Many of the young people that youth agencies serve are about to lose a lot of what they’ve spent the past nine months learning. Research indicates that all young people experience significant learning losses during the summer break from school, and that the magnitude of these declines varies by grade level, subject matter and family income.

Despite several glaring problems, the recent Mathematica Policy Research study reporting first-year findings from the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program contains some important lessons for after-school and youth development practitioners.

Here’s a story from the friendly skies. One day last summer, on a flight from Atlanta to New York, I came across the following three newspaper headlines:

“Teenage Drug Use at an 8-Year Low.”

“Student Privacy Just a Specimen for Profit, Politics.”

“Brains of Mice Enlarged.”

Many years ago I attended a dinner party at which the conversation turned to the question, "Has a book ever changed your life?" What ensued was a raucous and engaging discussion that ranged from Doris Lessing to Hermann Hesse to Michael Harrington (my contribution at the time). The question has continued to intrigue me, both professionally and personally. As a youth worker, I have read voraciously - but seldom with that elusive payoff my friends and I described.