RECENT EVALUATIONS

An Evaluation of After School Programs Provided by Beyond The Bell’s Partner Agencies, Richard Roberts, Los Angeles Unified School District’s Beyond the Bell. This paper explores the hypothesis that participation in after school programs results in academic, attendance and behavior improvements that only occur when students attend a minimum number of daily sessions.

Evaluation on the Out-of-School Time Initiative: Executive Report on Second Year, Policy Studies Associates, Inc. Policy Studies Associates, Inc. The New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) launched services under its Out-of-School Time (OST) Program for Youth in September 2005. This evaluation provides an update on the progress of the initiative and its impact on New York city’s youth. Read Full Report

Evaluation on the Out-of-School Time Initiative: Executive Report on First Year, Policy Studies Associates, Inc. The New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) launched services under its Out-of-School Time (OST) Program for Youth in September 2005. Together, DYCD and the city’s nonprofit community, working closely with the New York City Department of Education, extended services to more than 51,000 youth across the city in the initiative’s first year, making OST one of the nation’s largest afterschool program effort. Read Full Report

Pathways to Success for Youth: What Counts in After-School, Massachusetts After-School Research Study (MARS). Despite current expectations, little is known about how youth programs affect young people and which aspects of programs are most likely to result in positive outcomes for youth. How does program participation affect youth? What factors are likely to lead to high quality, effective programs? What is the quality of existing afterschool programs? This brief report reviews and summarizes key findings. Read the Report and the Executive Summary.

A Decade of Results: The Impact of the LA’s BEST After School Enrichment Program on Subsequent Student Achievement and Performance, UCLA Center for the Study of Evaluation (CSE), Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. Some policymakers reject any evaluation efforts that cannot be directly translated into gains on standardized test. For programs like LA’s BEST, with a wide range of intellectual, interpersonal, and individual goals, there is a need to assure that evaluations are similarly broad in their conception, and that test scores, when they are used, are employed at an appropriate time, ideally after a program has had time to mature.

Charting the Benefits of High-Quality After-School Program Experiences: Evidence from New Research on Improving After-School Opportunities for Disadvantaged Youth, Policy Studies Associates, Inc. After-school providers tend to make plans focusing solely on their own organizations and immediate partners and on the expected progress of their own enrolled participants. It has been all too rare for providers to collaborate in community-wide efforts to create after-school safety nets for all youth in a community. This study suggests collaboration is an opportunity for protecting and supporting youth during the after-school hours.

Building Quality, Scale, and Effectiveness in After-School Programs: Summary Report of the TASC Evaluation, Policy Studies Associates, Inc. To assess The After-School Corporation’s (TASC) effectiveness, this external evaluation collected data over four school years from 96 TASC after-school projects and their host schools in New York City to ask questions about: quality and scale in program implementation, program effects on participating students, and program practices linked to student success.

Shared Features of High-Performing After-School Programs: A Follow-Up to the TASC Evaluation, Policy Studies Associates, Inc. Examining high-performing afterschool projects funded by The After-School Corporation (TASC), evaluators reanalyzed student performance data collected during the multi-year evaluation of the TASC initiative to identify projects where the TASC afterschool program was especially likely to have contributed to improvements in students’ academic achievement. Report includes the Out of School Time (OST) Observation Instrument.

What High School Students in The Chicago Public Schools Do in their Out-of-School Time, Robert M. Goerge, Robert Chaskin and Shannon Guiltinan, Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago. Providing a descriptive overview of what CPS high school students do in their out-of-school time, and based on programs’ multiple goals, this study suggests more and improved programs are needed.

Negotiating Among Opportunity and Constraint: The Participation of Young People in Out-of-School-Time Activities, Robert J. Chaskin and Stephen Baker, Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago. Part of a larger project including several waves of a large-scale survey of high school students in CPS, and an investigation of what’s available for youth in Chicago and how it is distributed across the city. Study includes a survey and in-depth interviews with youth-serving agencies providing information on the availability of programs and the dynamics of provision.

California 21st Century HighSchool After School Safety and Enrichment for Teens (ASSETs) Program, Submitted to California Department of Education by Jerome Hipps, Marycruz Diaz and Greg Wingren. Examines in part the impact of the 21st Century High School ASSETs Program on participating schools, and what benefits students receive.

Promoting Positive Youth Development for High School Students After School: Services and Outcomes for High School Youth in TASC Programs, Jennifer Birmingham and Richard N. White, Policy Studies Associates, Inc. Evaluates data from The After-School Corporation’s (TASC) multi-year evaluation suggests the personalization and supportive environments of programs promote positive outcomes in the measurement of school attendance, Regents test success, and credit accrual for graduation.

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids California - A California Survey of Teens, Opinion Research Corporation. Discusses teens at risk, the incidence of high-risk behaviors such as crime, gangs, and drugs, and the overall need for afterschool programs.

Afterschool Learning: A Study of Academically Focused Afterschool Programs in New Hampshire, New Hampshire State Afterschool Task Force. Evidence shows positive effects on NH students who participate in academically focused afterschool programs. The findings highlight four key factors: afterschool programs improve students’ learning skills; regular attendance contributes to student success; and high quality staff makes a difference.