As program evaluations become increasingly popular (and necessary), afterschool program evaluators seek appropriate evaluation methods. Focus groups with participants and staff offer a great deal of promise, but they also offer specific challenges that must be addressed in order to use this method successfully.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Nicole Schaefer-McDanielKimberly LibmanSarah Zeller-BerkmanKira Krenichyn
If the schools can provide the instructional boost and afterschool can offer the engaging enrichment, students will have what they deserve: the best of both worlds.
Out-of-school time (OST) programs can benefit the growing population of English learners in U.S. public schools by giving them the gift of time in which to learn both English and subject matter content.
This paper outlines the need for sustainable, scalable afterschool computer science programs targeting girls and describes the development of one such curriculum. Evaluation research on girls’ learning of computer science and on the capacity of afterschool staff and organizations to provide computer science programming leads to our description of a research-based approach to sustaining and scaling the program nationally—an approach that other programs might use to expand their reach and impact.
Drugs and alcohol, free time and empty houses are readily available in affluent communities. But positive role models and meaningful activities are often in short supply.
In recent years, afterschool programs have come to be envisioned as sites for addressing the failure of urban schools to provide adolescents with the requisite skills and knowledge to participate in a rapidly shifting social, political, and economic landscape. The purpose and nature of such educational endeavors has taken many varied forms, as a growing number of stakeholders become invested in shaping the direction and implementation of afterschool programming. However, youth, as the recipients of these programs, have rarely been looked to as sources of experiential knowledge about the
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Katherine SchultzEdward BrockenbroughJaskiran Dhillon
Dance classes provide a model for afterschool and in-school education where multiple, “embodied” modes of teaching and learning enhance development and where risk-taking is rewarded rather than punished.
Pairing age-appropriate novels with thematic units on the civil rights movement and the presidential election allows one afterschool practitioner to bring democracy to life for inner-city middle school students.
The author’s “Nana” was grandmother to an entire neighborhood of children. Today, her afterschool program fulfills a similar set of needs for 21st century children and their parents.
This article describes the way that an afterschool center and school begin to collaborate, using the analogy of moving from friendship to dating and marriage.