The Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development undertook a 2-year project to assess non-school programs offered by various community-based youth organizations. This project included focus group interviews with youth about their current activities and preferences for after-school activities. Sixteen focus groups were conducted in the metropolitan…

The goal of this study was to answer the question: "When ethnically diverse fourth- and fifth-grade students participate in a ten-week musical program, are there any shifts in the following: academic performance, attitude towards school, social skills, self-esteem, public speaking ability, and/or school attendance?" This study was…

This tool is part of a series of technical assistance resources on financing and sustaining out-of-school time and community school initiative. These tools and resources are intended to assist policymakers, program developers and community leaders in developing financing and sustainability strategies to support effective initiatives. For nearly a…

The James Irvine Foundation launched the Communities Organizing Resources to Advance Learning (CORAL) initiative in 1999 with the goal of improving the academic achievement of children in the lowest-performing schools in five California cities. In 2004, CORAL adopted a more targeted approach toward reaching this goal by integrating a regular…

The OSAP High Risk Youth Demonstration Program of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is directed toward the prevention of substance abuse through experiences offered in an after-school program. This is the second year that the program has been implemented in the six elementary schools and one middle school of the Mississippi Choctaw…

The term "doing hair" is utterly familiar. However, while the term can refer to simple acts of combing, brushing, washing, and styling hair, in the culture of adolescent African-American girls, doing hair is a social practice that represents power, creativity, and sometimes popularity. This article describes a three-month afterschool…

Today, many immigrant neighborhoods are plagued with poverty, inadequate schools, family disruption, single parenthood, teenage pregnancies, youth gangs, violent crimes, drug abuse and alcoholism, and anti-intellectual youth subcultures. Such unsettling environments put immigrant children of the inner city at greater risk than those living…

Researchers conducted case studies of Ninth Grade Success Initiative (NGSI) grants to gain a greater understanding of issues facing large numbers of at-risk students, many of whom, despite potentially receiving services as early as kindergarten, still reach ninth grade unprepared to succeed academically in high school. Case studies focused on NGSI…