Afterschool programs are increasingly recognized as valuable opportunities for learning that can create social capital, expose students to topics of interest, and build personal identities. Yet poor policies and ineffective practices driven by outdated ideals abound, including an emphasis on the caregiving function of afterschool programs for…

This research recounts a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) project aimed at facilitating students' empathic development while also offering ways to identify and assess students' written expressions of empathy. I ground this work in an exploration of the many processes labelled as empathy and the reasons for including empathy as a course…

The U.S. education system often functions as an adverse developmental context for Black students. Discriminatory policies and racist ideologies contribute to a series of cascading inequities in students' learning experiences. For example, years of data indicate an overrepresentation of Black students suspended and/or expelled from school.…

Immigrant parents have varied yet comparable language ideologies, perspectives, and experiences. In this qualitative case study, 67 immigrant parents were interviewed, 37 Chinese and 30 Latinx, whose children were enrolled in Mandarin-English and Spanish-English bilingual after-school programs at two urban public elementary schools in the U.S.…

This fact sheet synthesizes research findings and survey results from parents and program providers to illustrate how afterschool programs are accelerating students' academic growth, supporting their well-being, and helping working families. Additionally, the fact sheet highlights the overwhelming support afterschool programs have from voters…

Purpose: To explore undergraduate students' experiences leading and facilitating an out-of-school-time (OST) physical activity program for middle school girls. Method: Five female undergraduate students (N = 4 Black or African American) participated in semistructured individual interviews and submitted weekly reflections during their time leading…

Organized out-of-school time (OST) activities are critical assets that help youth develop life and social skills. Latine youth have some of the lowest rates of participation in OST activities out of all racial and ethnic subgroups due to structural and interpersonal barriers that perpetuate and reproduce patterns of inequality. The purpose of the…

This ethnographic case study examines how a social justice-based after-school (AS) youth leadership development program became a space for youth participants to develop a critique of social oppression and motivation for social justice action. Research demonstrates that youth development programs and models that cultivate agency among Youth of…

This Practice to Policy brief, based on insights from UnidosUS's Affiliate Network of community-based organizations and public charter schools in Illinois, Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California, highlights the critical role of Out-of-School Time (OST) programs in supporting the Latino community, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19…

Due to the shortcomings of traditional schools, innovative supplementary (e.g. out-of-school, summer) programs have been identified as important sites for the positive development and learning of Black youth. This study foregrounds Black youth perspectives to offer additional insight into the role of supplementary programming. Drawing from 15…

The application of computer-aided teaching and learning approaches is not uncommon in many school environments. However, due to the traditional practices, most of the practice-based courses have still relied on face-to-face teaching methods. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, most programmes have been moved to the online platform. With the case…

In 2021, China issued the "Double Reduction" (DR) policy to reduce the within- and outside-school burden on students. The policy requires all compulsory education schools to provide after-school services such as homework tutoring and well-rounded development activities for willing students. Based on student survey data from 13 schools in…

This holistic single-case study aimed to understand the impact of digital story telling (DST) on the identity expressions of Native American youth. The question that guided the study asks, 'How do Native American adolescents in a rural, tribal-run after-school programme for Indigenous youth explore and express who they are through digital story…

This study explores how digital storytelling influences the cultural identity development of secondary culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students from Bhutanese-Nepali backgrounds. Utilizing the theoretical framework of multiliteracies, cultural identity and sociocultural theory in Second Language Development, this research investigates…

Kids Creative is a New York City nonprofit that runs afterschool and summer programs with over 1,000 youth each year. The programs they run use this creativity-oriented process to produce original musicals, works of art, videos, dances, and more. When Kids Creative received grant funding, they were able to include more youth and add homework help,…