In sports, youth are coached to see persistence and hard work as important paths to personal improvement and success. They come to understand through practice that mistakes are tools to help them improve and that collaboration and teamwork are keys to success in team sports. These ideas about the importance of effort, persistence, mistakes, and…

Despite the success of informal STEM programs, one ongoing challenge is sustaining learners' interest beyond the programs' initial impact (Morris et al., 2019). Although some longitudinal studies suggest that such programs can have a lasting impact on girls in STEM (e.g., McCreedy & Dierking, 2013), further research is needed to identify the…

Student success and achievement in afterschool programs depend on caring adults who go above and beyond to make children feel that they are special and can achieve anything (Akhavan, Emery, Shea, & Taha-Resnick, 2017). In the Oxnard (California) School District, where the author is the afterschool grant manager, many of the 200 staff in the…

Although schools themselves cannot address resegregation, they can mitigate some of the detrimental effects of racial inequalities. Students of color internalize racial inequalities in educational environments at critical times in their identity formation. This internalization can lead to attitudes and behaviors that contribute to academic…

This descriptive study explored the relationship between sustained attendance in high-quality 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC)-- funded programs and key child outcomes. The key hypothesis was that high-quality programming is associated with the development of social and emotional skills, which in turn may be related to academic…

Programs that seek to engage participants in arts-based programming may be drawn to creative youth development (CYD), a youth-focused, holistic approach to learning through creative expression. As the Creative Youth Development National Partnership (2018) defines it, "'Creative youth development' is a recent term for a longstanding theory of…

The past decade has brought increased focus on STEM learning (Bell, Lewenstein, Shouse, & Feder, 2009; NGSS Lead States, 2013; U.S. Department of Education, 2015). The growth of STEM-related industries and the power associated with STEM fields make access to STEM careers an equity issue (Buechley, 2016). Despite gains in educational…

The William Penn Foundation launched Philadelphia's Informal Learning Initiative (ILI) to support the development of literacy-rich programming for families with children aged 3 to 9. The initiative was designed as a network of partnerships in which a cultural organization--usually a museum--paired with one or more, community-based organizations…

Commonly described as youth-led or youth-driven, the youth-adult partnership (Y-AP) model has gained increasing popularity in out-of-school time (OST) programs in the past two decades (Larson, Walker, & Pearce, 2005; Zeldin, Christens, & Powers, 2013). The Y-AP model is defined as "the practice of (a) multiple youth and multiple…

In the first learning community session since last summer's programs, foundation staff at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving in Connecticut invite providers to share their news. "What worked? What challenges did you see?" Seasoned providers highlight field trips taken, books introduced, newsletters crafted by youth and shared with…

Many afterschool physical activity programs and curricula are available, but evaluation of their effectiveness is needed. Well-marketed programs such as the Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH) Kids Club have shown limited effectiveness in increasing physical activity for participants in comparison to control groups.…

Most communities have afterschool programs that give school-aged students a safe place to go after the dismissal bell rings. The next step after simply providing a safe haven is to create a nurturing environment that develops young people's talents and supports their needs. A formal mentoring program can help to achieve this goal. In order to…

As more stakeholders get involved in the effort to engage youth in STEM outside of school, afterschool providers are being asked to document a wide range of outcomes, from generating interest in STEM to improving standardized test scores in math and science and to increasing the number of students who pursue STEM majors in college. This issue has…

American youth do not have equal access to academic success and life achievements. In particular, low-income male students of color are disproportionately failing in school, filling prisons, and enduring the consequences of low social capital and poor investment in their futures. Unfortunately, many young people cope with poverty and life in…

Challenge seeking is an important component of children's personal and academic development. Defined in this paper as a set of beliefs and behaviors that propels individuals to initiate and persist at difficult ventures, challenge seeking is a key indicator of mastery goal orientation. This orientation has been linked with a number of positive and…