After School Research

The California Afterschool Network will work with SRI International, an independent nonprofit research and development institute, on a recently funded project from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The project is a five-year research study focused on science in afterschool settings. Researchers will examine the types and quality of science offerings within afterschool programs and the factors that influence them.

According to a recent Children Now Report, currently, 137,000 positions are available within the after school workforce in California, the equivalent of nearly 75 percent of the elementary teacher workforce or all police and firefighters in California combined. The annual rate of workforce turnover in after school, however, reaches or exceeds 40 percent. Fortunately, there are ways to tailor after school workforce development strategies to meet local needs and leverage available resources. The pilot projects described in this brief have developed unique partnerships that can be replicated.

Two new Child Trends briefs draw on research across the fields of college readiness, workplace readiness, and youth development to identify the skills and competencies high school students need to master for future success.

This brief offers ideas for state and local policymakers to develop interagency collaboration, expand access to affordable afterschool programs, and advance general program quality. Examples of promising practices from across the country are included to show leaders concrete ways of promoting the sustainability of afterschool programs. To view PDF click here.

Learning Point Associates and the Collaborative for Building Afterschool Systems (CBASS) have recently released the Enhancing School Reform Through Expanded Learning report. The report explores the benefits of integrating expanded learning opportunities into overall school reform. The report finds that well designed expanded learning programs can improve overall school performance and increase positive academic, developmental and health outcomes.

Children Now recently released The California Report Card 2009: Setting the Agenda for Children. The Report Card provides an overview of key 2008 public policy and budgetary developments that affect children; defines policy objectives for improving children’s well-being; and lays out immediate actions for California’s leadership to pursue. To learn more about the Report Card, click here

This Research Brief entitled More Than a Hunch: Kids Lose Learning Skills Over the Summer Months was recently released by the Center for Summer Learning. The brief summarizes research on summer learning loss and provides recommendations for policy makers and tips for program providers. The two-page brief can be accessed by clicking here.

The Federal Office of Special Education Programs recently released a toolkit and parent materials on teaching and assessing students with disabilities.  For more information and to access the toolkit, click here.

Afterschool Investments recently released their National After School Profile. The profile contains demographic information on school-age youth, reviews various after school financing strategies, addresses the role of collaboration and alignment of community resources to support after school programs, highlights some quality efforts occurring nationally and includes information on the largest federal funding sources. To view the Afterschool Investments National Profile click here.

A new report from America's Promise Alliance has stunning data about the high school graduation rate in our nation's 50 largest cities: only about half (52 percent) of students in the main school systems actually finish high school with a diploma -- the number is as low as 35 percent in Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit and Indianapolis. To view this study and find out more about the America’s Promise Dropout prevention campaign, go to http://www.connectforkids.org/node/6506

This report synthesizes the last 10 years of findings from Public/Private Ventures and other researchers' work to address one of the most demanding challenges facing today's after-school programs-how to create and manage programs that stand the best chance of producing specific, policy-relevant outcomes. It examines recruitment strategies that attract young people to activities, the qualities that make activities engaging and motivate participants to attend regularly, and the infrastructure-staffing, management and monitoring-needed to support such activities.

A new report from the California Dropout Research Project investigates the causes of high school dropout through dialogue with youth throughout the state. The study found that Teacher-student relationships are a powerful force in determining student's overall experiences of school; the absence of support seems fundamental to the rationale for dropping out. To view this study, go to http://www.lmri.ucsb.edu/dropouts/pubs_reports.htm

This article by Robert Granger of the W.T. Grant Foundation examines program evaluation literature, observational studies, and commentaries to summarize after school programs impacts on academics, components of successful programming, and identifies approaches to program improvement.  To view this article, click here.

Offers a snapshot of after school in NY and outlines steps to ensure youth have access to high quality after school opportunities. To view this study visit http://www.tascorp.org/section/what_we_do/public_policy/partners/nysan1

This Child Trends study analyzes family and community data for children ages 6 to 17 from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health and finds that nearly half of children in high-risk families are not involved in any out of school time activity regardless of neighborhood risk level. While children from all levels of neighborhood risk that do not have high risk families participate in out of school activities at much higher rates.

The latest “Issues and Opportunities in Out-of-School Time Evaluation” research brief from Harvard Family Research Project draws on seminal research and evaluation studies to address two primary questions: (a) Does participation in after school programs make a difference, and, if so (b) what conditions appear to be necessary to achieve positive results?

Research in the out-of-school time (OST) field confirms that there is a strong connection between professional development for staff and positive outcomes for youth. The Out-of-School Time Resource Center (OSTRC) in the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania recently released Promising Practices in Out-of-School Time Professional Development. The document broadly defines OST professional development and summarizes promising practices in its design, implementation, and evaluation.

The Center for Collaborative Solutions recently released volume 4 in their New Relationships with Schools: Building Community by Connecting With Schools series studying organizations that have sought to strengthen their communities by working with schools to improve public education. The study highlights the work of five such organizations throughout the country, including one in San Francisco that used “conversation-based engagement,” speaking directly with schools and communities regarding their needs in order to influence educational policy and practice.