A new school year brings new beginnings for students, parents, and educators alike, and we’re ready to keep changing the game. We’ve sat down with our Founders, Nick Telford and Chris Murphy, to discuss the future of Expanded Learning Opportunity Programs (ELO-P) and what it means for Elevo.
Going into the future, ELO-P brings a rare and massive opportunity for Elevo, for millions of kids—and for thousands of potential coaches early in their careers.
This is about the happiness and success of a whole generation. How kids feel “out there” on the playground and outside the classroom shapes how they feel about school as a whole. And, how they feel about school, and their school community, shapes their readiness to show up, engage, collaborate, persist, and learn. Not just in the classroom, but also at home, and beyond.
Between recess, before- and after-school care, and intersession programs, many K-8 students already spend up to 1,000 hours a year on their school’s campus. But, until recently, those schoolyard hours have been underfunded, neglected, and seen as the place for PE or childcare. With ELO-P, the California Department of Education recognizes that kids deserve more than babysitting, repeats of classroom work, Wall Ball, and crayons.
ELO-P changes the game—and high-quality expanded learning that complements the classroom is new to most providers. And, while school districts have new funds to spend, few are ready to run high-quality learning programs all year round. That view of the power of informal learning environments has been at the heart of Elevo’s work to transform kids’ well-being for 17 years. Elevo is one of the few providers with that vital experience.
At the same time, we would like to make coaching K-8 kids the most exciting and rewarding work for our coach candidates to consider. Our goal is for our coaches to recognize that working with Elevo will create a new path to a meaningful livelihood.
Districts—and the families and students they serve—are counting on experienced partners. In other words, they’re counting on us to innovate our programs and scale our teams to deliver the full promise of ELO-P.
