From July 7-9, 2021 the WERA 2020+1 Virtual Focal Meeting took place in collaboration with the Sociedad Espanola de Pedagogía (SEP), and the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (Spain). The WERA-IRN Extended Education, invited Marianne Schüpbach from the Freie University Berlin (Germany), one of the chairs of the network to organize and chair the symposium Research in Extended Education to Achieve Outcomes for Children and Youth: The Role of Quality Measurement and Interventions.

Heinz Günter Holtappels presented a paper he developed together with Karin Lossen, Karsten Wutschka (all TU Dortmund), and Wolfram Rollett (PH Freiburg) on Promoting students reading competencies by an extracurricular activity and offered insights into their Design and Results of an Intervention-Study in German Primary Schools. Our chair, Marianne Schüpbach and Heike Moyano (both Freie Universität Berlin) as well as Anna-Maria Seemann, and Heike Maria Schütz (both Akademie für Ganztagsschulpädagogik) presented a paper about an intervention study, specifically the Development of a Program to Foster Socio-emotional Competences. Dawn McDaniel presented a paper from herself and Gil Noam (both The PEAR Institute) on a preliminary evaluation of Ready, Set, Action in the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA).

We appreciate that Ingrid Gogolin, University of Hamburg, and Immediate President of the WERA, examined the papers and laid the foundation for a fruitful and in-depth discussion on the topic.

If you are interested in finding out more about the WERA 2021 Virtual Focal Meeting, please refer to the program.