Celebrate Summer Learning!

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By Sam Piha

June 21st is National Summer Learning Day. Summer time programs offer an excellent opportunity to put in place the Learning in Afterschool Learning Principles. Summer programs often have longer hours and greater flexibility than traditional afterschool programs that operate during the school year. For the latest research on the benefits of summer learning, read this Wallace Foundation report published by the RAND corporation.

California is marking Summer Learning Day with a flagship event in Sacramento. To learn more about this event, see the blog entry by Jennifer Peck of Partnership for Children and Youth. For information regarding Bay Area activities, check out this interactive map.

Policy Recommendations to Promote Afterschool Learning in Continuation High School Settings

By Sam Piha

In our previous posting, we discussed the importance of afterschool learning in continuation high school settings. Nowhere is the opportunity for afterschool learning more important. Many of these youth face a number of challenges in their lives and are often highly disengaged, having failed in and been failed by the traditional school system. These youth clearly need more – more caring adults who know them, more ways to complete the requirements for graduation, and more preparation for life after high school. Afterschool programs that model the Learning in Afterschool learning principles are well positioned to help this population of youth as well as the continuation schools that work to serve them.

Below are policy recommendations that will ensure the support of these programs. 

1. The expectations regarding program attendance, adult-to-student ratio, and cost per student should be amended for programs operating in continuation high schools. This is because they serve a higher concentration of high-risk youth, there are fewer resources afforded by the school, and the school structure and schedule is very different than a comprehensive high school. 
2. There should be a focused attempt to coordinate other relevant funding streams that target high-risk youth and which could bring supplemental services to the youth and the program. This includes funding that promotes healthy choices, the prevention of high-risk behavior, mental and physical health, career preparation, college access, etc. 
3. Because of the “last chance” nature that these settings represent, it is important that these afterschool programs work very closely, almost merging with the continuation school. This “extended day” way of working could be easily misinterpreted as using the afterschool resources to supplant the responsibilities of the regular school day. It is recommended that policies are in place that do not penalize stakeholders in developing a closely aligned, extended day model. 
4. Finally, there should be efforts to build bridges between the programs that serve continuation high school youth and those that serve young adults who are 19 years and older. Often, young people beyond the age of 18 are no longer supported by local programs. As a result, the only systems that exist for these youth are ones that come into play after they’ve gotten in trouble. A good example of a positive program supporting young adults is the Special Foundation Course and separate learning communities that exist at Las Positas Community College in Livermore, CA. This course and subsequent learning community provides extra support to high risk, disengaged youth who entered the college, many from continuation high schools.

Local TED Conference: Bringing Compassion into Education

Teaching compassion is embedded in the Learning in Afterschool principles.  Caring about others allows us to be collaborative in our learning, brings greater meaning to us when we act in service of others, and expands our horizons as we learn about common issues across cultural divides.

We have an excellent opportunity to explore the issue of compassion in education at the upcoming TEDxGoldenGateED conference on Saturday, June 11, at the Craneway Pavilion in Richmond, CA. 

"Why teach compassion? Are we entering into an era of compassion? In today’s schools, the ability to imagine the needs of others, to think compassionately, and to design, innovate, and act in ways that benefit others are true 21st century skills. Compassion is a new science of the brain, of human health, and of sustainability. It is the greatest privilege we are granted, to teach compassion."

For more information, visit the TEDx website 

A Study of Program Quality and Youth Outcomes

By Cathie Mostovoy, guest blogger  

In May 2011, Woodcraft Rangers, the Los Angeles based afterschool program, published the results of an in-depth study of its Nvision afterschool programs, covering 43 elementary and 14 middle school sites.

The study, entitled Assessment of Program Quality and Youth Outcomes: A Study of the Woodcraft Rangers’ Nvision Afterschool Program is one of the few ever conducted to directly measure program quality and its impact on student academic and behavioral outcomes.  While past studies conducted by the afterschool community have shown that regular attendance in high quality afterschool programs is associated with positive development outcomes for school-age youth, rarely have they directly tested the relationships between afterschool program quality and student outcomes.  Using quality and outcome data from the Nvision 2008/2009 program year, the Woodcraft study primarily sought to explore the implementation of the Nvision afterschool program model at various sites, and to examine whether and how quality is associated with student outcomes. Areas used for assessing quality fell into five general categories: Activities, Collaboration, Staffing, School partnership, and Youth involvement.

Using a unique and sophisticated algorithm, study findings were able to define the meaning of “quality” while producing measureable results and program improvement information that can be implemented by management.  Significantly, the study confirmed that afterschool program quality impacts youth outcomes even beyond demographics and participation level, especially at the middle-school level. The findings further show that youth leadership in the program is critical to changing outcomes at the middle-school level, while additional adult involvement in club activities is more important at elementary sites.  

The importance of this study is the confirmation that afterschool program quality needs to be understood and defined in terms of outcomes. Results show that quality is not a one-size fits all proposition, and that expectations differ between elementary and middle school outcomes.  This study has given Woodcraft a foundation for assessing quality in a way that will help maximize the effectiveness of the Nvision program, making each site truly responsive to the needs of its students and helping them to explore pathways to purposeful lives.  It also provides a roadmap for other organizations to follow in evaluating their programs, using the results to guide their quality measures (and related action steps) and improve their own outcomes.

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Woodcraft Rangers’ Chief Executive Officer Cathie Mostovoy has more than 20 years of experience delivering, administering and advocating for after school and educational services for young people in need. Cathie received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Child Development from California State University, Los Angeles, and earned her Masters of Education in Counseling from Loyola Marymount University.

Woodcraft Rangers serves more than 18,000 students from 70 locations in high-need neighborhoods of Los Angeles County.


Engaging Youth as Workers

By Sam Piha

Today, we know that extended learning opportunities offered through afterschool programs for older youth are important to their success. As a result, high school afterschool programs are growing in number across the country. Many of these programs are striving to engage older youth as workers and helpers within the program. We believe that these strategies are well-aligned to the Learning in Afterschool principles in that they offer learning that is active, collaborative, meaningful, geared for mastery and expand horizons.

In Engaging Youth as Workers Within High School Afterschool Programs, we offer guidelines regarding the employment and compensation of youth who are engaged as workers within the program, and share strategies that are currently being used by ASSETs programs to engage high school age youth in this way.

The "Third Place" for Afterschool Programs

By Sam Piha

A growing number of families with school age children reside in affordable housing settings. Many of these intentional communities have access to afterschool programs provided by resident service organizations. Housing-based afterschool programs for children and youth represent the third place for afterschool programs, following those that are operated within public schools and the community.

It is essential that we shine a light on the importance of youth programming within these settings, which have previously been overshadowed by school and community-based programs. Afterschool programs in affordable housing settings often have superior knowledge of and access to the families of the young participants and have the advantage of being open during school holidays and during the summer. You can learn more about this critical setting by clicking on the articles below.

In Afterschool Programs in Affordable Housing Communities, we provide a brief overview of affordable housing communities and explain why in many cases these settings are the best places to offer afterschool programs to low-income families. We offer a number of comments based on our interviews with several leaders of resident service organizations who support afterschool programming.

In a second article, After School and Beyond: A Profile of Hope Through Housing Foundation's Youth Development Program, we focus on one resident service organization and take a close look at their efforts to provide quality afterschool programs at 37 locations. To review Hope's evaluation of their programs, click here. 

Afterschool Programs Matter for Rural Youth

By Logan Robertson, guest blogger

The term “urban” is often conflated with “youth,” a practice that tends to diminish or even make invisible the distinct experiences of youth who do not live in “the inner-city.” The urban context is understood as standard, while the rural context is usually conceptualized in terms of myths of the idealized countryside and the idyllic childhood.

While the issues faced by urban youth often take center stage in academic research and popular media, rural youth must meet similar and unique challenges, though in decidedly different environments. Afterschool programs are crucial for older youth in rural communities – for many young people, the afterschool program may be the only safe place during non-school hours, the only chance to try new activities and skills, and the one chance outside of school to develop positive relationships with peers and role models. Afterschool programs create resources that help rural youth negotiate the transition to successful adulthood.

As such, youth practitioners and advocates must persist in their efforts to develop afterschool programs for high school students in rural communities, to make rural youth programs more visible to the afterschool field, and emphasize the important role that such programs can have, not only for rural youth, but for the communities in which they live.

To view a profile of one rural school-based afterschool program serving high school age youth, see an article that I recently wrote with Temescal Associates entitled “I Feel Like I’m Somebody: Older Youth and High School Afterschool Programs in a Rural California Town.” To view a recent publication from the Harvard Family Research Project entitled “Out of School Time Programs in Rural Areas” click here. To join a committee on afterschool programs serving rural communities sponsored by the California Afterschool Network, click here.

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Logan Robertson, PhD, is Assistant Director of Community Services for Cutler-Orosi Joint Unified School District. She is also a member of the California School-Age Consortium’s Trainer Network, the Tulare County Youth Commission, and the California Afterschool Network’s Rural Programs Committee.

Obstacles and Successes in Rural Afterschool Programs

By Kimberly Boyer, guest blogger 

More than 20 percent of America's children attend public schools in rural areas. The state of California ranks among the highest in rates of mobility among rural households and rural students who are English Language Learners. It comes as no surprise that students in rural Central Valley communities face unique obstacles early in life that can perpetuate a pattern of poverty, disenfranchisement and missed opportunities. The benefits of afterschool programs for youth are well documented. Yet, rural schools often struggle to reach the very students who can benefit from these outstanding, free programs. A March 2011 report from the Harvard Family Research Project called "Out-of-School Time Programs in Rural Areas," reveals four major challenges rural programs must overcome: Read more to learn about the four challenges, local examples and successes.

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Dr. Kim Boyer is a former director of staff development and research for the Central Valley Afterschool Foundation and currently the interim executive director. She has seven years experience working directly with children as an elementary school teacher in Los Angeles, and as an afterschool program coordinator in Fresno.

For the past two years at CVAF, Kim has helped design and facilitate the Region VII ASSETs Learning Community, in addition to providing support to develop high quality elementary afterschool programs through trainings and onsite coaching. She continues to be involved in the sustainability of high school ASSETs programs, in the development of tools and resources to support Quality Self-Assessment, and in the implementation of English language learner support in afterschool.

Going the Extra Mile: Afterschool in Continuation High School Settings

By Sam Piha

Continuation high schools serve a very vulnerable group of young people who are often considered at-risk because of various challenges in their lives, including family disruption, mental health issues, substance abuse, violence and aggression, and other nonacademic barriers (de Velasco et al, 2008). Many youth arrive behind in the credits needed for graduation, lacking fundamental academic and organizational skills, and are disengaged from school, their communities, and positive adult role models.

Nowhere is the opportunity for afterschool learning more important than in continuation high schools. Many of these youth face a number of challenges in their lives and are often highly disengaged, having failed in and been failed by the traditional school system. These youth clearly need more – more caring adults who know them, more ways to complete the requirements for graduation, and more preparation for life after high school. Afterschool programs that model the Learning in Afterschool learning principles are well positioned to help this population of youth as well as the continuation schools that work to serve them.

In Going The Extra Mile, we focus on the potential of afterschool programs to serve the multiple needs of older youth in California continuation high school settings. We begin by offering an overview of continuation high schools in California. We next provide a description of afterschool programs currently operating using the 21st CCLC funds. We rely on an interview with a program supervisor who oversees several programs in the Bay Area and a survey of programs across the state, which we conducted as part of our research. 

In a Case Study: The SPOT Program at Ralphe J. Bunche Academy, we profile one continuation high school afterschool program and provide interviews we conducted at two different afterschool programs at continuation high schools. For a video produced by a Bay Area afterschool program serving older youth in a continuation high school setting, click here. For more research and resources on continuation schools, click here. 

A Decline in Arts Education

By Sam Piha

We know as afterschool leaders that young people love to express themselves through the arts. Further, we know that integrating arts into learning promotes young people's motivation and engagement and aligns well to the LIA learning principles.

However, a new study issued by the National Endowment for the Arts revealed that fewer American children are getting access to arts education. "What's especially alarming is that the overall decline is only part of the story: The drop is apparently most severe for African-Americans and Hispanics," wrote Erik Robelen in Education Week's Curriculum Matters blog.

According to the study, Arts Education in America: What the Declines Mean for Arts Participation, "The decline of childhood arts education among white children is relatively insignificant, while the declines for African American and Hispanic children are quite substantial - 49 percent for African American and 40 percent for Hispanic children."

What does this study say about our responsibility to make time in afterschool programs for arts education?

To view the February 28th blog post by Erik Robelen on this study, click here. To access the full study, Arts Education in America, click here.

Learning Science in Informal Environments

By Sam Piha

There is a growing interest in increasing young people's exposure to science - particularly since much of the hands-on science time has been eliminated from our public schools. Afterschool programs that offer project-based science activities are well aligned with the LIA learning principles.

Learning Science in Informal Environments, authored and published by the National Academy of Sciences, "draws together disparate literatures, synthesizes the state of knowledge, and articulates a common framework for the next generation of research on learning science in informal environments across a life span. Contributors include recognized experts in a range of disciplines--research and evaluation, exhibit designers, program developers, and educators. They also have experience in a range of settings--museums, after-school programs, science and technology centers, media enterprises, aquariums, zoos, state parks, and botanical gardens."

We believe that Learning Science in Informal Environments is an invaluable guide for afterschool program leaders, community-based organizations, and those interested in promoting K-12 science education.

For an executive summary of this text and a peek at the full table of contents, click here.

"Out-of-school time (OST) programs that focus on girls’ involvement in STEM can play an essential role in improving female representation in these traditionally male-dominated fields. OST programs offer girls a non-threatening and non-academic environment for hands-on learning that is collaborative, informal, and personal. However, barriers to quality implementation and outcome-based evaluation present challenges for STEM programs serving girls." (STEM Out-of-School Time Programs for Girls, Harvard Family Research Project, 2011) To view this Research Update, highlighting findings from the evaluations and research studies in the OST Database that focus on STEM programs for girls, click here. 

For a recent article on the role of science learning outside of school, published in Education Week (April 4, 2011) click here.