Resources on Afterschool, Fourth Edition

An online collection of resources produced by the Collaborative Communications Group and funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. This site contains hundreds of resources in the areas of research and evaluation, promising practices, professional development, public awareness and communication, policy development, and financing strategies.

Pennsylvania Department of Education – 21 st Century Community Learning Centers

Pennsylvania Department of Education – Tutoring

Learn about tutoring programs that are available in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare

Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation affirms its founder’s vision of a world in which each of us is in partnership with the rest of the human race – where each individual’s quality of life is connected to the well-being of the community, both locally and globally.  We pursue this vision through creative grantmaking, thoughtful communication and other activities that enhance community in its many forms. The Mott Foundation funds extra learning opportunities programs through its "Pathways Out of Poverty, Improving Community Education" grants.

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices

The NGA Center for Best Practices is the nation's only dedicated consulting firm for governors and their key policy staff. The Center's mission is to develop and implement innovative solutions to public policy challenges. The Center tracks, evaluates, and disseminates information on state innovations and best practices by: surveying states on key issues and providing assessments of current activities for individual states; cataloging innovative programs and sharing this information via reports, briefs, and a variety of online and printed materials; and hosting seminars, academies, and workshops to allow state executives to share ideas and experiences.

Council of Chief State School Officers

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is a nonpartisan, nationwide, nonprofit organization of public officials who head departments of elementary and secondary education in the states, the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Education Activity, and five U.S. extra-state jurisdictions. Since 1998, the Council of Chief State School Officers has been actively engaged in research and development activities to gain knowledge about high-quality extended learning and development opportunities in order to build state capacity in the implementation and maintenance of such programs. Our efforts have been focused on developing shared understanding about characteristics of high-quality after-school programs and of effective state policies that support such programs and providing technical assistance to state education agencies in their work with statewide after-school networks to ensure improvement in both the quality and quantity of extended learning opportunities within their states.

United States Department of Education: 21st Century Community Learning Centers

The focus of this program is to provide expanded academic enrichment opportunities for children attending low performing schools. Tutorial services and academic enrichment activities are designed to help students meet local and state academic standards in subjects such as reading and math. In addition 21st CCLC programs provide youth development activities, drug and violence prevention programs, technology education programs, art, music and recreation programs, counseling and character education to enhance the academic component of the program.

• US Department of Education 21st CCLC Resource Page

Afterschool Alliance

The Afterschool Alliance is a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of afterschool programs and advocating for quality, affordable programs for all children. It is supported by a group of public, private and nonprofit organizations that share the Alliance's vision of ensuring that all children have access to afterschool programs by 2010.

 

America's Promise: The Alliance for Youth
The task of keeping America’s Promise to every child is too big for government or the private sector alone. America's Promise forges the largest and most successful cross-sector alliance for youth. Through Alliance partnerships with mayors and governors, businesses, non-profit's, community leaders, faith groups and young people.

Center for Schools and Communities

Since 1988, the Center for Schools and Communities has been committed to improving outcomes for children and families through training, technical assistance, program evaluation, research and resource development. The Center's work focuses on prevention and intervention initiatives operated by schools, organizations and agencies serving children, youth and families.

Center for Afterschool Education (CACE) at Foundations, Inc.

CACE provides professional development trainings, publications, and technical assistance nationally to build the educational quality of out-of-school time. Foundations, Inc. works with schools, school districts, community organizations, afterschool networks and afterschool programs, providing services that help children succeed in school and beyond. Resources for afterschool educators include:

• Academic Content, After-School Style: A Notebook and Guide
  Boost the academic content of your afterschool program without losing that special afterschool style. Whether you’re a novice or veteran teacher, program director or educator, school-age caregiver or youth worker, Academic Content, After-School Style will help you weave school content into all kinds of afterschool programs. This pioneering guide, now in its fifth printing, is designed as a write-in notebook for individuals or groups interested in creative, hands-on professional development.
• Afterschool Style in Practice: 25 Skill-Building Meetings for Staff
  Make in-house, ongoing skill-building for high quality afterschool a regular part of your program. These ready-to-go meeting plans, handouts, and activities are perfect for the afterschool director who wants staff to excel, but has no time to develop staff trainings. The meetings—based on tested professional development trainings CACE has given nationally—can be used in sequence, or individually, depending on the needs of any given program.
• More Than Just Talk: English Language Learning in Afterschool Help English language learning happen, afterschool style. Created specifically for the afterschool educator, More Than Just Talk combines real-world language in afterschool with the knowledge and practice of English language learning and teaching. Teaches techniques to get English language learners talking, playing games, creating stories and relating with friends in English, while building language skills.
• Homework Time Action Pack multimedia kit
  Break the barriers of homework time. Reach beyond assignments and transform homework time into an active, rich learning environment. Tested in 25 middle and high schools in Philadelphia, PA and Camden, NJ—and named one of 15 national Promising Practices in Afterschool by the Washington, D,C.-based ADE Center for Youth Development and Policy Research—the Homework Zone approach supports homework completion while building young people's skills, confidence, and independence as learners. The action pack, which includes three books, a CD, a deck of math card games, and signs, makes it easy to replicate this successful program from start-up through daily operations.
• Foundations’ Quality Assurance System (QAS) for afterschool programs
  The FOUNDATIONS Quality Assurance System (QAS) wraps after-school program evaluation and program improvement into one comprehensive online tool. It guides you step-by-step through a close look at your program, takes you through a structured analysis, and leads you into creating program-specific targeted improvement plans. The initial and follow-up format and unique graphing provide an immediate and comprehensive view of the progress you have made and the areas that still need work. Programs assessing more than one site can produce a Cumulative Report and view progress across sites.

Communities In Schools

Communities In Schools is the leading community-based organization helping kids succeed in school and prepare for life. For over 25 years, CIS has championed the connection of needed community resources with schools. By bringing caring adults into the schools to address children's unmet needs, CIS provides the link between educators and the community. The result: Teachers are free to teach, and students -- many in jeopardy of dropping out -- finally have the opportunity to focus on learning.

Harvard Family Research Project

HFRP is working in partnership with other organizations to add value to the out-of-school time (OST) field by promoting strategic use of information to improve quality, accessibility, and sustainability of OST programs across the nation. Our strategy is tailored to support knowledge development, evaluation, and learning in out-of-school time, and draws from an array of our tactical activities including:

• Ongoing distillation and dissemination of key OST research and evaluation approaches and findings, using our Out-of-School Time Program Evaluation Database and other relevant research

• Networking, convening, and collaborating with other national OST intermediaries to develop and disseminate OST best practices information

• Creation of evaluation and professional development tools for OST evaluation to be used at national trainings and disseminated broadly via the Internet

• Use of our print and Web publication capacity to get information to and from the key stakeholders

The Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) Out-of-School Time Program Evaluation Bibliography

Contains citations for all the out-of-school time (OST) program evaluations that HFRP is currently tracking. The bibliography currently contains entries for 315 programs and provides basic program
information as well as links to relevant evaluation reports.

 

HAY-Helping America's Youth
Helping America's Youth is a nationwide effort to raise awareness about the challenges facing our youth, particularly at-risk boys, and to motivate caring adults to connect with youth in three key areas: family, school, and community.  As the leader of the Helping America's Youth effort, Mrs. Laura Bush is highlighting programs which are effectively helping America's young people. 

 

Minnesota Commission on Out-of-School Time
The Minnesota Commission on Out-of-School Time convened in January of 2004. The COmmission is dedicated to crafting the vision and strategies to ensure Minnesota’s young people have engaging opportunities to learn and develop in their non-school hours. The work of the Commission will result in a series of reports and recommendations that summarize what is known, make a case for what is needed, and help frame how we can ensure all young people have engaging opportunities to learn and develop .After a year and a half of meetings, briefing papers, and discussion, the Minnesota Commission on Out-of-School Time has released its final report entitled, Journeys into Community: Transforming Youth Opportunities for Learning and Development.

The Out-of-School Time Clearinghouse

In the past decade, The Finance Project has developed unparalleled resources that help leaders address financing and sustainability issues for out-of-school time programs. The Out-of-School Time clearinghouse brings together The Finance Project’s resources with resources developed by other organizations dedicated to building better after-school programs.

The Out-of-School Time Resource Center

Funded primarily by a grant from the William Penn Foundation, the Out-of-School Time Resource Center (OSTRC) is part of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy & Practice and is housed in its Center for Research on Youth and Social Policy (CRYSP). The OSTRC promotes out-of-school time student achievement by conducting research on and providing access to staff resources and professional development.

• OSTRC Electronic Bulletin Board
  The Out-of-School Time Resource Center (OSTRC) Electronic Bulletin Board is a forum for discussion, idea-sharing, and peer-networking among the out-of-school time community. It includes a calendar, job posting and more.

Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children

Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children promotes public policies that improve children's health, education, and well-being.

The Afterschool Hours: A New Focus for America’s Cities

A Report on the Municipal Leadership for Expanded Learning Opportunities Project funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. This report focuses on the accomplishments of eight cities, the lessons they learned, and recommendations for other municipal officials embarking on this work. Each city story ends with “leadership keys” that were instrumental to that city’s success and that other communities can replicate as they seek to improve and expand local afterschool programs.

After-School Programs Behavioral Issues Toolkit

Over the last year and a half of working with youth in the Youth Engaged in Technology (YET) after-school clubs, the YET staff have been faced with many youth who exhibit behavioral problems. To address these problems we began a search for specific strategies that YET site coordinators could employ to effectively work with these youth. After conducting a comprehensive review of the literature, we have developed a toolkit of strategies. We are making this toolkit available to youth development professionals and after-school program staff to assist them with youth who display disruptive behaviors.

After-School Programs for Children: Policy Brief in Family and Youth Resiliency

A report from the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences Cooperative Extension The convergences of a variety of interests in the after-school care area make it a critical time for policy makers to design programs that will meet the needs of children, families, and communities that they intend to serve. Given the widespread attention focused on these issues, it is important to build a system of high quality after-school programs that will sustain, improve, and endure through social change.

Beyond Safe Havens: A Synthesis of 20 Years of Research on the Boys & Girls Clubs

At the request of BGCA’s national office, Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) has undertaken a multiyear study to understand the benefits that the Clubs may have for the lives and outcomes of early adolescents. As a prelude to this larger study and to help hone its methodological focus, P/PV has reviewed the range of studies that have been conducted on Boys & Girls Clubs over the past 20 years, all of which are covered in more detail in the full report. This document is the executive summary.

Building Momentum: A Solid Commitment to After School Programs for Pennsylvania Youth

In May 2005, Philadelphia Safe and Sound joined other organizations and foundations in hosting a regional summit, Building Momentum: A Solid Commitment to After School Programs for Pennsylvania Youth. The summit brought together nationally recognized experts and advocates, state and local policy makers, after school providers, and philanthropic funders with the aim of providing research, perspectives, and strategy for a statewide effort to advocate for dedicated state funding for after school programs in Pennsylvania. This briefing paper is the result of the Building Momentum summit, serving as a guide to future efforts to expand and improve after school programs for more families across Pennsylvania.

Getting It Right: Strategies for After-School Success

This report draws from the lessons P/PV has learned from well over 100 after-school programs and youth-serving initiatives. The report is designed to help policymakers and program directors run effective programs and avoid problems highlighted by evaluations. It synthesizes the last 10 years of findings form Public/Private Ventures and other researchers' work on selected afterschool programs.

Governors’ Extra Learning Opportunities (ELO) Summits, January – August 2004

In July 2003, the NGA Center for Best Practices awarded funds to 13 states, with support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and The Wallace Foundation, to conduct governors’ summits on extra learning opportunities (ELOs). Summits have focused on a number of goals, such as engaging business partners at the state and local levels, building support among new state leaders, and/or strengthening statewide networks to support ELOs. Read this brief five page report covering summits from these states: Arizona, Connecticut, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming.

Harnessing Technology in Out-of-School Time Settings

January 2006 report. Harvard Family Research Project’s series of Out-of-School Time Evaluation Snapshots distills the wealth of information
compiled in our Out-of-School Time Program Evaluation Database and Bibliography into a single report. Each Snapshot examines a specific aspect of out-of-school time (OST) evaluation. This Snapshot reviews the role of technology in OST programs, highlighting the evaluation methods and findings about implementation and youth outcomes.

Hours that Count: Using After-School Programs to Help Prevent Risky Behavior And Keep Kids Safe

This report, a joint effort of the Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community Violence (HFI) and The After-School Corporation (TASC), offers educators, community leaders, and program operators practical and research-based information about how high-quality after-school programs can help prevent destructive behavior and violence, and protect students from harm and danger.

Journeys into Communities: Transforming Youth Opportunities for Learning and Development

This is the final report from the Minnesota Commission on Out-of-School Time. It offers a blueprint for ensuring Minnesota’s young people have engaging opportunities to learn and develop during the non-school hours. It summarizes the year-long work of the Commission and includes specific recommendations and actions for revitalizing Minnesota’s communities as great places to raise families.

Life as a Teenager- The Graduation Gap

While it wouldn't surprise anyone that the graduation gap is wide in urban districts, it is clear also that this is a statewide issue. To learn more, read this document which is part of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children's Youth in Transition series.

Life as a Teenager - Risk and Protective Factors

A survey of about 75,000 Pennsylvania teens shows many of them do not feel supported or protected by their schools, families, neighbors and communities.To learn more, read this document which is part of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children's Youth in Transition series.

Life as a Teenager - The State of Youth Employment

Work experience is a valuable part of a successful transition from youth to adulthood. Some research studies have demonstrated that young people who work while attending high school are more likely to graduate, less likely to be involved with crime, less likely to become teen parents and more likely to achieve greater lifetime earnings.To learn more, read this document which is part of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children's Youth in Transition series.

Moving Towards Success: Framework for After-School Programs

On June 5 - 6, 2003, an After-School Summit hosted by the U.S. Department of Education and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and sponsored by the C. S. Mott Foundation, was held in Washington, DC. As follow-up to the Summit, a committee of researchers and program experts (the Committee) developed this document to further articulate why intentionally linking program goals, program elements, participant outcomes, and evaluation is critical to improving the effectiveness of after-school programs. This document provides overall recommendations and guidelines to after-school staff and others about why such a framework is important in developing and sustaining an effective program. It describes a theory of change approach to help guide the thinking and implementation of program goals and elements, outlines a broad range of desired participant outcomes to consider, and discusses conditions most suitable for achieving positive results that meet the needs of the after-school participants.

Outcomes and Research in Out-of-School Time Program Design

The purpose of this paper is to suggest reasons and mechanisms for integrating outcomes and research into quality program design. To arrive at its conclusions, the paper follows this sequence of steps:

1. It provides basic background information on "out-of-school time" (OST) programming and its current prevalence in the United States.
2. It explains and promotes the integration of outcomes and research into program development.
3. It provides examples of research-based Best Practices.
4. It links specific Best Practices to priority student outcomes, and explains how these can be utilized in program design.

 

SPARK
SPARK (Sports Play and Active Recreation for Kids) is a nationally researched physical activity after-school program designed to meet activity recommendations for children ages 5 -14. SPARK promotes quality, daily fitness-related activities for up to one hour per day and encourages kids to be “lifelong movers.” Download SPARK fact sheet. Read Article. For more information about this program, please click here.

 

Supporting Student Success:A Governor’s Guide to Extra Learning Opportunities

With many forms and purposes, extra learning opportunities are a key part of many state policy efforts to support the long-term success of children, families, and communities. State policymakers increasingly recognize the important contributions that high-quality extra learning opportunities can make toward education, youth development, workforce, and prevention priorities.

Using NCLB Funds to Support Extended Learning Time: Opportunities for Afterschool Programs

This strategy brief describes several funding streams included in the
No Child Left Behind Act—other than the 21st Century Community
Learning Centers Program—that can support extended learning
opportunities. These funding streams include Title I (general Title I,
School Improvement, and Supplemental Educational Services), Safe
and Drug-Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC), Comprehensive
School Reform (CSR), and Innovative Programs. The brief first discusses NCLB to help afterschool program leaders understand the context and tenets of the law and its funding streams. It describes each funding stream and discusses how each could be used to support extended learning in afterschool programs. Finally, the brief includes considerations and examples to help program leaders interested in pursuing education dollars to support extended learning programs

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