Scholars have increasingly argued that we need to attend to adolescents' race, ethnicity, and culture in after-school activities to ensure positive effects. Still, little is known about adolescents' perceptions of culturally responsive practices in after-school activities (i. e., the use of diverse teaching practices, cultural engagement, and…

School extracurricular activities are an important site for positive youth development in low-resource international contexts due to their relative accessibility and community relevance. Such activity programs can simultaneously illuminate local best practices and learn from research in other contexts where positive youth development research is…

Program quality is an important topic for improving out-of-school time youth development programs. High levels of program quality may contribute to enhanced positive youth development outcomes. This paper explores aspects of program quality in the California 4-H Youth Development Program and its relationship to positive youth development outcomes.…

This report is a follow-up to a 2012-2013 study (see ED611342), which found that 77 of 100 large U.S. cities were coordinating the work of out-of-school-time providers, government agencies, private funders, and others to provide high-quality afterschool programs to the children who stand to benefit most. The report provides a look at the state of…

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse how teachers perceive the internal learning environment at Swedish leisure-time centres and set it in relation to steering documents. The empirical data is based on a comprehensive web-survey of 4,043 leisure-time teachers in Sweden. The methodological approach is a qualitative directed content…

Historically, afterschool programs have functioned independently with little coordination among provider organizations or agencies, and public and private funders operating in isolation. Research conducted by the National League of Cities for The Wallace Foundation profiled 27 cities that were known to be taking steps to improve coordination among…

Funders and program planners want to know: What does it cost to operate a high-quality after-school or summer program? This study answers that question, discovering that there is no "right" number. Cost varies substantially, depending on the characteristics of the participants, the goals of the program, who operates it and where it is located.…

Education outside the classroom can be defined, in its broadest sense, as any structured learning experience that takes place beyond the classroom environment during the school day, after school or during the holidays. It can include, among other activities, cultural trips, science and geography fieldwork, environmental and countryside education,…

Researchers and policymakers are increasingly interested in the issue of school accountability. Despite this, program standards for afterschool programs are not as fully developed as they are in other fields. This study bridges that gap and presents the results from a study that identifies benchmarks and indicators for high quality afterschool…

Assessing School-Age Child Care Quality (ASQ) is a five-step process which guides program staff as they evaluate the quality of their program so they can develop priorities and improve achievement of goals. The five steps in the ASQ process are: (1) preparing for program improvement; (2) gathering information; (3) building the Action Plan; (4)…