Out-of-school time programs can offer a secure and nurturing environment for children and adolescents, reducing the worries about what they are doing during these most vulnerable hours. For example, research suggests that participation in out-of-school time programs and activities can lessen the likelihood that children and adolescents will engage…

Child Trends produced this Guide to assist funders, administrators, and practitioners in identifying and navigating online resources to find evidence-based programs that may be appropriate for their target populations and communities. The Guide offers an overview of 21 of these resources--11 searchable online databases, 2 online interactive…

Research on successful out-of-school time programs repeatedly has found that the caliber of a program's staff is a critical feature of high-quality programs that achieve positive outcomes. Therefore, attracting, selecting, and retaining high-quality staff has become a major objective of out-of-school time programs. To expand what is known about…

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program is designed to train Americans to safely help themselves and their community in the event of a widespread disaster. This program is designed for adults. Despite youth increasingly becoming recognized as valuable resources, able to equally partner with adults in leadership and decision-making…

Bringing Up Girls in Science (BUGS) was an afterschool program for 4th and 5th grade girls that provided authentic learning experiences in environmental science as well as valuable female mentoring opportunities in an effort to increase participants' academic achievement in science. BUGS participants demonstrated significantly greater amounts of…

This longitudinal study examined how academic self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, and participation in an after-school program contributed to the academic achievement of Latino middle school students over the course of one school year. Participants were 47 Latino students in sixth through eighth grades who attended two public middle schools in…

Increasing interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has become part of education reform efforts in recent years in order to prepare students for the challenges of the twenty-first century global economy. Out-of-school time (OST) programs that focus on girls' involvement in STEM can play an essential role in improving…

Out-of-school time (OST) programs focused on older youth--specifically, youth in middle and high school--can help participants successfully navigate their adolescence and learn new skills well into their teens. OST programs can also help prepare older youth for a variety of new roles that they will assume as they enter college and the workforce.…

Austin Independent School District (AISD) student outcomes on attendance, discipline, Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) scores, and GPA were compared between students who participated and students who did not participate in Afterschool Centers on Education programs at AISD campuses during the 2010-2011 school year.

The purpose of this study was to explore the daily physical activities of Danish children with a focus on describing and explaining gender differences. Accelerometer measurements of physical activity in different contexts, as well as questionnaire data, were collected from more than 500 children at pre-school and later at third grade. The study…

Youth today develop within nested systems that either positively or negatively influence their development. Recent research shows that American youth have made tremendous progress: fewer teen births, fewer youth who are heavy drinkers or smokers, and more students completing high school. However, data also indicate that the number of youth living…

There is a documented need for more opportunities for teachers to learn about students' mathematical reasoning. This article reports on the experiences of a group of elementary and middle school mathematics teachers who participated as interns in an after-school, classroom-based research project on the development of mathematical ideas involving…

In 2010, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) launched an initiative to transform all district schools into full service community schools. The community school design provides integrated supports to students and fosters a school climate conducive to academic, social, and emotional learning. Interventions span in-school and out-of-school time,…

The afterschool community has long embraced the arts as part of the constellation of services offered to youth during nonschool hours. However, there has been much less comprehensive research in, and support for, the arts outside of school. Despite the fact that the United States has many local, regional, and state examples of excellent…

The 21st Century's information economy has been creating more jobs that require not only a college education but also a fair amount of expertise in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math--collectively known as STEM. The last several decades have seen the industrial- and manufacturing-based economy shift to a service economy fueled…