After School Programs Relevance / Impact

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.

The Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center (SNBC) recently released The Best of Both Worlds: Aligning Afterschool  Programs with Youth Development  Principles and Academic Standards to contribute to the growing body of  work that is deepening the quality of afterschool programming.  This  guide documents SNBC’s application of California Department of  Education content standards to innovative, project-based learning  clubs.  In so doing, this publication also demonstrates that youth development principles and standards-based education can coexist.&nbsp

Developed in partnership with after school providers, this Toolkit provides after school and youth programs with a wide range of resources for addressing equity and diversity in their work. It includes, easy-to-use activities for personal reflection, staff dialogue, program assessment, and organizational change.

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.

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.

The Cost of Quality Out-of-School Time Programs Study, Commissioned by the Wallace Foundation from The Finance Project and Public/Private Ventures, offers policy makers tools to use in planning quality out-of-school time programs. The study provides a data-filled examination of the costs associated with 111 diverse, quality Out-of-School Time (OST) programs in six cities. According to the study, costs vary widely depending on program goals, times of operation and the ages of children served.

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.

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 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

Author: Deborah Vandell Ph.D. (UCI)

This study outlines the longitudinal findings of eight high quality after school programs throughout the nation. The study found positive outcomes among youth who regularly attended high-quality afterschool programs, either alone or in combination with varied sets of additional enrichment experiences available in their neighborhoods.

To view this study, visit: http://www.gse.uci.edu/docs/PASP%20Final%20Report.pdf