On September 22-23, 2005, Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) and the C.S. Mott Foundation convened the After School Evaluation Symposium, with over 100 researchers, evaluators, policymakers, and practitioners, in Washington, DC. The goal of the interactive 2-day meeting was to bring together the perspectives of diverse stakeholders to inspire…

This paper describes a model of an after-school program for low-income suburban children of different ages (3-14 years). Housed in an industrial park, the program serves the children of both working and non-working parents and accepts into the program all children who apply for whom funding can be found. (This includes non-English speaking…

This paper describes the development and implementation of an after school program designed to introduce the Spanish language to children between the ages of 5 and 9. The program consists of 8 to 10 weekly units, each lasting 50 minutes, that provide students with basic vocabulary and grammar in an interesting and motivating format. Each unit…

Project Earlybird assists at-risk students to anticipate the upcoming classwork and be ready for the lessons when the teacher presents them. The project is a before/after school program in which elementary students in grades 2 through 5 are given extra help with reading, mainly using computers. Elements of the program include: (1) raising…

This paper provides an overview of the programs and services offered by the St. Louis Child Care Services to meet the needs of preschool and school-age children with special problems (physical, mental and behavioral). A short description of the programs and the services which were carried out between 1971-1979, along with the description of the…

In 1994, the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund made a commitment to school-age care by launching the MOST Initiative--a $6.5 million, multi-year project aimed at systemic community-based change to improve the quality and availability of out-of-school time for children in three cities: Boston, Chicago, and Seattle. The MOST Initiative was…

This project, "First Teachers," studied urban African-American families' perceptions of an after school involvement program which incorporates family storytelling and writing using computers. The project also examined the development and maintenance of university partnerships with inner-city school families, families' interaction and…