During the 2013-2014 academic year, the S.E.L.F. Foundation engaged 32 predominately at-risk students at Key Middle School (KMS) in afterschool tutorials and enrichment activities to support their academic, social, and emotional development. Outcome measures consisted of reading and mathematics performance before and after program implementation.…

Research in the out-of-school time (OST) field confirms a strong connection between professional development for staff and positive experiences and outcomes for youth. In recent years, the OST community has invested significant time and money into researching, creating, implementing, and evaluating professional development activities for OST…

Children have a wonderful curiosity about nature and the environment, which, if encouraged through afterschool activities can have a profound impact on their health and well-being. Children also take readily to concepts of conservation which will make them excellent stewards of the future of our environment. This issue brief explores the…

Participants in a recent Child Trends Roundtable explored how evidence-based programs might be integrated into community initiatives to strengthen outcomes for children. Participants discussed both practice and policy implications for this approach. Those attending agreed that it was important for programs and initiatives to be based on research,…

The purpose of this report is to examine the extent to which participation in the Los Angeles Better Educated Students for Tomorrow (LA's BEST) afterschool program leads to positive achievement outcomes in math and English-language arts. A quasi-experimental design is utilized, and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) is employed to examine the…

Using a Web-based survey, this study examined youth workers' professional development participation, preferences, and levels of agency support and the relationships between these variables and youth worker characteristics. Results revealed a positive relationship between participation in professional development opportunities and youth workers'…

In contrast with the field of second language acquisition (SLA), where until recently sociocultural concerns were largely unaddressed (Block, 2007), identity has always been at the core of heritage language (HL) education. The present article highlights this often overlooked history and presents action research centering on a Spanish critical…

Out-of-school-time programs, especially arts-based programs, can be critical players in a community's efforts to prevent school dropout. This research review suggests the following approaches for arts-based programs: (1) recruitment and retention of target populations with multiple risk factors; (2) long-term skill development that engages youth…

Over a year, a small group of high school students risked their afternoons and summer to participate in a science program that was "much different from science class." This was one of several after-school programs in Oakland and Richmond that the author was leading as an instructor with the East Bay Academy for Young Scientists (EBAYS). Students…

The purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between quality social support networks developed through high quality afterschool programming and achievement amongst middle school and high school aged youth. This study seeks to develop a deeper understanding of how quality after-school programs influence a youth's developmental…

This applied dissertation was designed to evaluate improving the reading performance of fifth-grade students through an afterschool reading program to determine whether it was effective in teaching Native American and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). This study compared the reading performance of fifth-grade students who struggle…

Disadvantages faced by Hispanic children in the U.S., compared to non-Hispanic Whites, have been widely reported. Economic differences account for some of the gaps, but the social isolation of Hispanic families also serves as a barrier to children's success. Whereas Hispanic families tend to have strong kinship networks, their social ties often do…

As the only federal funding stream that provides dedicated funds for afterschool programs across the country, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) initiative plays an important role in supporting the innovation that takes place in afterschool programs. Social innovation has been defined as "a novel solution to a social…

South Korea's students consistently outperform their counterparts in almost every country in reading and math. Experts have concluded, however, that the South Korean education system has produced students who score well on tests, but fall short on creativity and innovative thinking. They blame these shortcomings on schools' emphasis on rote…

The education system in California currently faces three major challenges--teacher shortage, lack of diversity in the teacher population in terms of gender and ethnicity, and a need for more effective teachers. After school programs have the potential of addressing all these challenges in a cost-effective manner. However, for these programs to…