A unique afterschool class in making comic strips and comic books, taught by a professional comic artist, encourages both literacy development and identity development in adolescent participants.
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.
Self-assessment can be a powerful tool for evaluating program quality, yet the available self-assessment instruments do not comprehensively address practices that promote academic enrichment.
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.
The worlds of business and youth-based community organizations share similar philosophies of creativity, collaboration and communication. Using research conducted at an urban youth theater program, the author demonstrates how young artists play organizational roles and act with a “sense of agency” comparable to that of the corporate world.
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
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Katherine SchultzEdward BrockenbroughJaskiran Dhillon
Prime Time Palm Beach County has implemented a quality improvement system that is creating a community of afterschool practitioners who value high-quality programming.
Responding to the expressed needs of the field, the U.S. Department of Education is building You for Youth (Y4Y), an online learning community whose modules will enhance the professional development of afterschool practitioners and program managers.
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.