The author, a narrative arts educator, was teaching an after-school drama program to 11 abused boys in a residential treatment center. The program promised them the opportunity to tell and stage their own story. The author began by sharing a story about an abused boy he befriended in seminary who ended up killing himself. The following week, he…

This paper examines the use of mixed methods for analyzing users' avatar-related activities in a virtual world. Server logs recorded keystroke-level activity for 595 participants over a six-month period in Whyville.net, an informal science website. Participants also completed surveys and participated in interviews regarding their experiences.…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the academic impacts of the Twenty-First Century Community Learning Centers on students who participated in this program. The following research questions guided the study: (a) are there significant differences between the Criterion Reference Competency Test English Language Arts scores of…

Extra classes have been a fixture in the educational system in India. They pre-date all existing educational programmes and examinations. Yet more recently the justification and reasons for the maintenance of these classes have been called into question. There have been unsubstantiated claims that in some cases the classes have been…

After-school programs specifically designed to improve students' mathematics achievement in collaboration with classroom teachers' planning and in class daily instruction have been found to be successful in improving student learning (Hock, Pulvers, Deshler, & Schumaker, 2001). The purpose of this article is to describe the results of an…

Project Exploration's Sisters4Science (S4S) is an afterschool program for middle and high school urban girls of color. Designed to "get" girls interested in science, "keep" girls interested in science, and "equip" girls with skills and experiences that enable them to pursue science, S4S creates a science-rich learning…

This study examined and analyzed selected middle school teachers' perceptions of grade retention, and informed teachers about current and past research on grade retention. Through analysis of teacher interviews and using a Likert scale instrument, responses indicated that teachers continue to support and to use retention when students do not…

A lot has been learned about effective approaches to realizing intended out-of-school time program outcomes. As program practitioners consider fostering evidence-based practices, program administrators, staff, and stakeholders must keep in mind that it is difficult to change behavior overnight, even among children. Efforts to improve outcomes for…

This paper discusses access and use of information and communication technologies among urban high school students from low-income families, a topic of great interest to teacher educators, educational policymakers, and others concerned with digital literacy instruction. Recent reports from national digital learning initiatives have portrayed…

We implemented a five-week family program called "Family Quest" where parents and children ages 9 to 13 played Quest Atlantis, a multiuser 3D educational computer game, at a local after-school club for 90-minute sessions. We used activity theory as a conceptual and an analytical framework to study the nature of intergenerational play, the…

A number of U.S. cities, including five supported by Wallace, have been building new systems of high-quality out-of-school time programming citywide. But what should supporters do to ensure that these young systems endure, during the immediate economic crisis and for the long term? This report on a recent Wallace-sponsored conference that gathered…

This report is the last in a series funded by The Wallace Foundation and developed by Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) and The Finance Project to document the costs of out-of-school-time (OST) programs and the city-level systems that support them. The report examines the development of OST systems in six cities across the country and summarizes the…

Jewish people from Ethiopia have been immigrating to Israel since 1973. Difficulties with language, unemployment; low socioeconomic status and prejudice have been common place and linked to problem behaviour including school drop out, delinquency and drug abuse among Ethiopian youth. This research examines the patterns of alcohol use and related…

At Jefferson High School, a governing body made up of teachers, nonclassroom-based educators, parents, and Principal Michael Taft appears to be living the dream, to the extent such a thing is possible during a staggering fiscal crisis. The leadership team, officially known as a "school site council," has mainly used an infusion of…

This article describes an after-school mathematics program for Latino students. The program focuses on field trips to explore the mathematical practices of the community's businesses. The authors elaborate the project's general structure and illustrate the principles that guided the program. (Contains 3 tables.)