Below are nearly thirty of the most important resources related to after-school time. Organized into four categories, these resources include academic reports on out-of-school time as well as websites helping practitioners to design, fund, implement and evaluate after-school programs. In addition, we have included a few links to outside organizations that offer a wealth of resources and research.
Promising Practices
Program Evaluations
Resources for Practitioners
Supporting Research
Affiliated Organizations
For additional information, please e-mail research@mass2020.org.
The After-School Corporation (TASC) – Promising Practices Initiatives
The After-School Corporation (TASC) documents promising practices to share with the after-school community, accessible by the fourth link down. TASC, a nonprofit organization, was established by the Open Society Institute in April 1998 to enhance the quality, availability, and sustainability of after-school programs in New York City and State and, eventually, across the nation.
Making After-School Count
This quarterly publication summarizes best practices and current research in various topic areas related to after-school programming. Files are available in pdf format.
National Institute of Out-of-School Time Clearinghouse
The goal of the clearinghouse is to provide practitioners, advocates, policy makers, researchers and anyone else interested in building systems to support the out-of-school time workforce, with a space to learn and share information about what’s working across the country to help build a skilled and stable workforce.
National Governors’ Association Best Practices Database
Summary: Based on a national survey to identify state-level programs that provide extra learning opportunities for school-age children, this database is intended to be a comprehensive catalog of extra learning opportunity (ELO) programs at the state level. Programs that receive funding from a variety of sources -- state, federal, local, foundations, parent fees -- are included.
Promising Practices in Afterschool
The Promising Practices in Afterschool (or "PPAS") Initiative is an effort to find and share things that are working in afterschool programs. The PPAS website is for afterschool program directors who want to improve the quality of their programs.
What Works Clearinghouse
This Clearinghouse was established by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences in 2002 to provide decision makers with the information they need to make choices based on high-quality scientific research. It will develop standards for reviewing and synthesizing educational research and will provide its findings in several free, searchable, user-friendly databases.
Youth Learn
The YouthLearn Initiative offers youth development professionals and educators comprehensive services and resources for using technology to create exciting learning environments. YouthLearn, created by the Morino Institute and now led by Education Development Center, Inc., provides the tools to start or strengthen both after-school and in-school programs.
Harvard Family Research Project's Out-of-School-Time Evaluation Database
Harvard Family Research Project's Out-of-School Time database of out-of-school time evaluation profiles provides information, in an accessible way, about evaluation work of both large and small out-of-school time programs and initiatives. Each profile contains an overview of the out-of-school time program or initiative that was evaluated, as well as detailed information about each evaluation report produced about that program. Electronic links to actual evaluation reports, where available, are also provided, as are contacts for program directors and evaluators.
California’s After School Learning and Safe Neighborhoods Partnerships Program: 1999-2000
This report summarize the findings of statewide and local evaluations of the After School Learning and Safe Neighborhoods Partnerships Program (ASLSNP). Outcome data show a consistent pattern of positive results on student achievement, attendance, behavior, and reductions in grade retention. (February 2002)
Author: Department of Education, University of California at Irvine; Healthy Start and After School Partnerships Office, California Department of Education
Multiple Choices After-school: Findings from the Extended-Service Schools Initiative
This report focuses on the experiences “on the ground” of the still young but maturing Extended-Service Schools (ESS) Initiative sites. EES Initiative supported the creation of 60 after-school programs in 20 communities, each implemented one of the four nationally recognized models – the Beacon, Bridges to Success, Community Schools and the West Philadelphia Improvement Corporation. (June 2002)
Author: Jean Baldwin Grossman, Marilyn L. Price, Veronica Fellerath, Linda Z. Jucovy, Lauren J. Kotloff, Rebecca Raley, Karen E. Walker; Public/Private Partnership
Stepping Backwards: A Policy Report from the Keep the Promise Initiative
This second installment of research on a series of focus groups composed of Massachusetts tenth-grade students who did not pass the MCAS on their first try, as well as a follow up on how they fared in the re-test. It found that those students who attended tutoring sessions after school performed much better on MCAS than those who did not (April 2004).
Author: MassInsight Education
The After-School Corporation: Five-Year Report
Data and analysis of five years of community after-school programs in New York City, this evaluation shows the programs’ significant impact on children.
Author: TASC
"A" is for Assessment: A Primer on Program Evaluation
This guide is intended to help practitioners and others strengthen programs designed to increase academic achievement, ultimately broadening access to higher education for youth and adults.
Afterschool Alliance – Program Tools
These resources are tools and tips on accessing funding and using communications to build support for programs among local residents, community groups, businesses and policymakers.
Financing and Sustaining Out-of-School Time and Community School Initiatives
With support from Wallace-Reader’s Digest Funds and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, The Finance Project has developed a technical assistance capability to: (1) develop information and technical assistance resources to assist state and community leaders in developing short- and long-term financing strategies; (2) provide targeted support and assistance to national and/or regional out-of-school time and community school initiatives.
Accountability for After-School Care: Devising Standards and Measuring Adherence to Them
This report includes a thorough review of the literature in order to identify relevant "best practices" in after-school programming, the development and implementation of a data collection tool designed to measure one particular California program’s adherence to such practices, and a thoroughgoing analysis of the data compiled. This research has quickly become a benchmark for how after-school programs should be evaluated. (2001)
Author: Megan Beckett, Angela Hawken, Alison Jacknowitz (RAND)
Use of Continuous Improvement and Evaluation in Before- and After-School Programs
This study, supported with funding from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, is intended to provide "quick turnaround" information to inform the future direction of the Foundation related to building the capacity of after-school programs to engage in evaluation / continuous improvement (CI) efforts to promote program improvement.
Author: Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement
Brief: Community Programs to Promote Youth Development
The National Academies of Science has published an 8-page report brief based on the Academy report, “Community Programs to Promote Youth Development.” The brief, which summarizes the 300+ page book that was published in 2002 by the National Academy of Science, takes a critical look at why and how youth programs can prevent risky behavior and promote positive development. (2004)
Author: National Academies of Science
Critical Hours: Afterschool Programs and Educational Success
This paper documents in great detail the value of after-school programs on student's in-school performance. Dr. Miller's analysis is intended to serve as a resource to anyone interested in knowing why and how after-school programs work, stimulate dialogue among parents, educators, policymakers, and public officials and help providers think about ways to improve their program models.
Author: Dr. Beth Miller (Nellie Mae Education Foundation)
The Costs and Benefits of After-School Programs
This cost/benefit analysis was conducted on behalf of the Proposition 49 Ballot Initiative campaign in Fall 2002 to determine how much money invested in the state’s after-school system now would save taxpayers later. Authors note that because of the potential of these programs to steer children away from potential crimes and, more importantly, to inspire them to achieve in school and seek postsecondary education degrees, every $1.00 invested now would save taxpayers anywhere from $8.92 to $12.90 in future public expenditures not spent.
Author: William O. Brown, et al, Rose Institute of Claremont University
Formal Evaluations of the Academic Impact of Afterschool Programs
A number of different types of evaluations have been conducted over the last several years, assessing the academic impact of after-school programming. This paper presents a summary of some of the major evaluations over the course of the last decade (September 2004)
Author: Afterschool Alliance
Learning Beyond School: Developing the Field of Afterschool Education
This white paper focuses on three major issues that directly affect the success of learning in afterschool programs: 1) the building of organizational bridges between school and afterschool; 2) the handling of homework; and 3) enriched learning curricula and projects. (2002)
Author: Gil G. Noam, Gina Biancarosa, Nadine Dechausay; The Program in After School Education and Research at the Harvard Graduate School of Education
Mentoring: A Promising Strategy for Youth Development
The overarching finding from this research is that mentoring programs can be an effective strategy for enhancing the positive development of youth. Mentored youth were found to have fewer absences in school, better attitudes, fewer violent acts, less drug use, and improved relationships with their parents. (February 2002)
Author: Child Trends
Report of the Early Education and Care Advisory Committee
The Massachusetts legislature appointed a 21-member committee to study and make recommendations on the foundational and organizational elements for a statewide, high-quality, voluntary, universally accessible preschool program, including workforce development, school readiness assessment and program evaluation. (December 2004)
Author: Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Research on the 40 Development Assets
This research site discusses the framework of developmental assets, a way of understanding the supports young people need in their lives to grow up healthy and responsible adults. (1996)
Author: Search Institute
Research Synthesis: OST Strategies and Low-Achieving Students
This quantitative analysis of 56 studies of after-school and summer programs found these programs have a small, though statistically significant positive impact on student achievement in reading and mathematics.
Author: Mid-Continent Regional Education Lab
Strategies for Success: Strengthening Learning In Out-of-School Time
Commissioned by Boston’s After-School for All Partnership, seven distinguished organizations and institutions researched seven strategies for expanding learning opportunities beyond the traditional school day and year. This document summarizes the key cross-cutting issues that emerged from this collective body of work as well as summarizing each research topic with an emphasis on effective practices. The full text of the all seven papers can be found at http://www.afterschoolforall.org/news/research.html
Author: Boston’s After-School for All Partnership and various
Time to Enhance Math in After-School
The study reviews how after-school programs in Boston and nationally integrate math into their programming, and identified the potential for after-school programs to play a greater role in supporting children's math learning. The report suggests that the coaching model of professional development-that is on-site experts working alongside after-school program staff, may prove as successful in terms of improving math learning as it has been for improving literacy.
Author: TERC
Afterschool Alliance
The Afterschool Alliance is a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of afterschool programs and advocating for quality, affordable programs for all children. It is supported by a group of public, private and nonprofit organizations that share the Alliance's vision of ensuring that all children have access to afterschool programs by 2010. The Alliance works with a broad range of organizations and supporters, including policymakers and policymaker associations, advocacy groups, afterschool coalitions and providers at every level, business and philanthropic leaders, technical assistance organizations and leaders representing a variety of interests, each with a stake in afterschool.
Afterschool.gov
Afterschool.gov is a one-stop website connecting the public, and particularly afterschool providers, to federal resources that support children and youth during out-of-school time. A great range of resources is included on Afterschool.gov, including issues that face America’s youth, and information about starting and operating an afterschool program. Afterschool.gov includes resources from a variety of federal agencies, including a searchable database of federal funding sources.
Boston After School & Beyond
Boston After School & Beyond (Boston Beyond) is a public/private partnership to organize the many networks and organizations that make up the Out-of-School Time (OST) field into a coherent system with the goal of expanding access to high-quality programming for all of Boston's families. It was formed in 2004 as the successor to Boston's After-School for All Partnership and the Boston 2:00-to-6:00 After-School Initiative.
Coalition for Community Schools
The Coalition for Community Schools brings together local, state and national organizations that represent individuals and groups engaged in creating and sustaining community schools, which are schools that serve a broad array of children's and families' needs beyond the traditional school day. This site will help you figure out the answers - or at least help you ask the right questions - when dealing with the challenges of creating and sustaining community schools.
Full-service Schools Roundtable
The full-service schools roundtable is a coalition working to advance the healthy development and academic success of students in Boston through integrated school community partnerships. In alignment with BPS goals, the Roundtable increases Boston's capacity to provide comprehensive school-based supports for children, youth and families.
Harvard After-School Initiative
The Harvard After School Initiative (HASI) is the University's $5 million grantmaking and partnership venture in out-of-school time innovation and improvement. Introduced in 2001, HASI (run by Harvard's Office of Government, Community and Public Affairs) set out to invest $5 million over five years in grants and other resources in neighborhood-based efforts to facilitate the learning and healthy development of young people in the city of Boston. These funding and resource investments go to out-of-school time programs and organizations offering services to children and youth aged five to 18, before and after school, in the evenings and on weekends, and during school and summer vacations. HASI allocates the bulk of its resources through annual grantmaking.
National Institute for Out-of-School Time
For over 20 years, the National Institute on Out-of-School Time, at the Center for Research on Women at Wellesley College, has successfully brought national attention to the importance of children’s out-of-school time, influenced policy, increased standards and professional recognition, and spearheaded community action aimed at improving the availability, quality and viability of programs serving children and youth. NIOST’s varied initiatives have moved the field forward using Research, Evaluation and Consultation; Policy Development and Public Awareness; and Training and Curriculum Development
