[PDF] Afterschool Programs Level The Playing Field For All Youth Afterschool Alert Issue Brief eBook
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This issue brief presents the obstacles that a number of youth face in America due to factors such as, failing schools, dangerous neighborhoods, poverty, disproportionate incarceration, poor health and nutrition, lack of employment opportunity, language difficulty and marginalization of their heritage and culture. The heavily structured school day does not offer many opportunities to address these problems, and when left to their own devices, youth can find themselves facing boredom at best and danger and risky behavior at worst in the hours after school. This brief highlights the benefits of quality afterschool programs for at-risk youth. Such programs have the ability to reach youth in meaningful ways that take their backgrounds and cultures into account. A quality afterschool program is an open place where youth can feel safe, express themselves, and learn from and form bonds with both their teachers and their peers. Quality afterschool has the potential to help youth develop life skills and turn young people into problem solvers, creative thinkers, community participants, lifelong learners and productive, successful adults. (Contains 16 endnotes.).
Afterschool programs provide safe places for youth after school in addition to improving academic achievement and helping working families. Afterschool programs provide youth a safe, supervised environment that reduces their risk of committing or becoming a victim of violent crime. A recent report from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids has found that violent juvenile crime is most likely to occur between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., and that youth are more likely to smoke, drink or do drugs during these hours. Moreover, the U.S. Justice Department has found that murder rates among 14-17-year-olds has increased 165% from 1985 to 1995. Afterschool programs promote safety by preventing youth violence, providing safe places afterschool and educating youth about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. This issue brief highlights some afterschool programs that have been successful in providing a safe environment for students. (Contains 12 endnotes.).
Some say America's attention to community is in decline. As people work longer hours, endure longer commutes, and have less time to socialize and join community organizations, they are not getting to know their neighbors and communities. Schools exist in a vacuum, having little or no association with the surrounding neighborhood, and many neighborhoods lack safe places for youth to gather and socialize without parents being concerned about violence, drug use, abduction, traffic or other dangers. After school programs are uniquely suited to fill this void and become America's new neighborhood, a safe space for both kids and parents to gather to learn, play and connect. By giving schools, community based organizations and communities a sound investment in one another, after school programs have the power to reduce crime, increase safety, bring neighbors together, and foster community pride and ownership. Successful after school programs help young people become productive adults, get parents involved in their children's education, produce safer streets, address community needs, foster civic responsibility, strengthen community groups and rally residents around a common goal. In short, after school programs make communities safer and stronger. Successful afterschool programs help young people become productive adults, get parents involved in their children's education, produce safer streets, address community needs, foster civic responsibility, strengthen community groups and rally residents around a common goal. In short, afterschool programs make communities safer and stronger.
The dominant narratives of US rurality within educational research and literature centers on the Appalachian and southern US perspectives. However, there is a need to add texture and expand the vision of rurality in US schools and education. Expanding the Vision of Rurality in the US Educational System provides readers, especially college and university faculty in pre-service education programs, with a better understanding of the rural students they teach and the rural communities where they will eventually teach. It also attempts to move the discourse beyond the deficit framework for understanding rural communities. Though the book does not ignore barriers in rural communities, it focuses on the strengths and opportunities available to rural educators without depending on the rural idyllic. Covering key topics such as diversity, belonging, and regional rurality, this premier reference source is ideal for administrators, policymakers, industry professionals, researchers, academicians, scholars, practitioners, instructors, and students.
The Afterschool Alliance, in partnership with MetLife Foundation, is proud to present the first in their latest series of four issue briefs examining critical issues facing middle school youth and the vital role afterschool programs play in addressing these issues. This series explores afterschool and: the Common Core State Standards, students with disabilities and other special needs, data utilization to improve programming, and keeping children safe and supported. With the goal to equip their students with the knowledge and skills they will need in college and in the workplace, currently 45 states have adopted the Common Core State Standards. As the Common Core begins entering more classrooms across the country, students and parents need additional help to understand the standards and familiarize themselves with the standards, and teachers and schools require additional support to ensure they are able to raise student achievement to meet the standards of the Common Core. Afterschool programs can be--and in many places, already are--an integral source of support for teachers, schools, children and parents. This issue brief discusses assessments of U.S. students' math and reading skills compared to their peers globally, the call for a focus on 21st century skills, the goals of the Common Core to help raise students' ability to complete on a global stage, and the variety of ways afterschool programs are working with students, teachers, and schools to support learning under the Common Core. [For the related reports, see "Afterschool Supporting Students with Disabilities and Other Special Needs. MetLife Foundation Afterschool Alert. Issue Brief No. 64" (ED546847); "Keeping Kids Safe and Supported in the Hours after School. MetLife Foundation Afterschool Alert. Issue Brief No. 65" (ED546850).].
Afterschool programs provide myriad benefits to all who participate, but the lion's share of programs are geared toward younger children. According to a recent survey, 6.5 million children in the U.S. are in afterschool programs, and just 8 percent are in grades 9-12. However, there are 2.3 million high schoolers who would participate if programs were available. In spite of the autonomy that typically comes with age, teens still need guidance and adult supervision to help keep them safe, in school and on the path to success in life. Results of a study of high risk teens from an urban school district are presented, and strategies for reaching out to older teens who often have adult responsibilities are also provided. This issue brief highlights the following findings: (1) Teens need guidance to stay on the path to productive adulthood; (2) Teens need additional help preparing for college and the workforce; and (3) Reaching out to teens can be a challenge. This report concludes by saying that perhaps the most important aspect of creating an afterschool program for older teens is simply listening to the young people they aim to serve. (Includes 12 endnotes.).
After-school advocates and practitioners face a seemingly continual struggle for adequate funding. While there have been successes, budgets have tightened at all levels of government, and advocates must be prepared to demonstrate that after-school programs are a worthy investment. This report highlights benefits of these programs by pointing out that a struggling student is not the sole bearer of the cost of academic difficulty: remedial education, absenteeism, grade repetition, drop-outs, crime, drug use, teen pregnancy and income lost are some of the costs taxpayers bear when a young person does not succeed in school. These costs start tallying when school begins and last for a lifetime. As manufacturing jobs dwindle, the next generation of workers will need more education and advanced skills in order to succeed as productive members of the workforce. If future workers come out the end of the education pipeline unable to meet these standards, businesses bear the cost of retraining. Studies and evaluations continue to demonstrate that after-school programs are cost-effective and save money by addressing risky and expensive (for society) behaviors by keeping youth busy during the hours they are most likely to get into trouble, and providing young people with access to caring adults who provide the support they need to succeed, whether in homework help or learning how to say no to drugs. Children and youth who regularly attend quality after-school programs have better grades and conduct in school, are more likely to graduate, and have lower incidences of drug-use, violence and pregnancy. The flexibility of after-school programs means that they are uniquely able to tailor themselves to what their community needs. Beyond the bottom line, many benefits to individual students, teachers, schools and communities cannot be assigned a dollar value. Time to find a passion or a skill, better self-esteem, teamwork skills, confidence, a greater sense of curiosity, a lifelong love of learning: society will reap the benefits of making an investment to create future generations of scientists, teachers, leaders, artists and thoughtful citizens. Quality after-school programs, like schools themselves, need quality staff, effective curricula and community collaboration in order to succeed. Federal, state and local governments need to put their weight behind developing policies that support staff and curriculum development and regular evaluation so programs can best serve today's youth and tomorrow's adult citizens. (Contains 18 endnotes.).).
Since the introduction of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, schools have been under increased pressure to demonstrate gains in academic achievement, primarily measured through test scores. Despite school day interventions designed to improve student achievement, many schools struggle to improve these outcomes. In addition, there is growing interest in giving students broader opportunities and experiences so they have a better chance to succeed in these rapidly changing times. Those challenges, coupled with the upcoming reauthorization of No Child Left Behind, have led school system leaders and policy makers across the country to consider extending the amount of time children and youth spend in school in order to boost their academic performance and enhance their skills and knowledge. There's good reason to consider extending learning time. On average, children spend only 20 percent of their waking hours in school. Typically, schools are in session 180 days a year, six and one half hours a day. Keeping schools open longer to meet the needs of children and communities was recommended in 1994's "Prisoners of Time." Expanding learning opportunities was one key reason the federal government has invested in 21st Century Community Learning Centers--the nation's only federal funding source dedicated to afterschool programs--for nearly a decade. (Contains 13 endnotes.).
Preparing youth for success in tomorrow's workforce is of increasing concern to American schools, communities, policymakers and businesses. After-school programs are uniquely situated to help youth develop the skills needed in the 21st Century workplace. The after-school setting provides additional time for learning, and allows for engaging instructional methods, such as project-based learning, real world application and smaller group sizes. In 2000, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported that increased competition on a global scale was giving rise to a trend of "high-performance workplaces" in which flexible, decentralized work practices are carried out by multi-skilled workers. NCES acknowledged that, at the time of the report, these types of workplaces were in the minority and were clustered in a few industrial sectors. However, NCES predicted that, in the near future, the skills required of front-line workers may increase to include proficiency using a variety of machines and technology, and personal skills such as flexibility, problem-solving, responsibility, teamwork, and initiative. NCES also predicted that in an increasingly service-based economy, the need for critical-thinking and social skills would also increase. More recently, the Department of Education has asserted that "today's flexible workplaces rely on people who can handle multiple tasks, interact well with colleagues, respond to varying customer needs, identify problems and make quick decisions on how to fix them." The afterschool field recognizes that preparing the future workforce to be competitive in the global economy is something that quality programs can contribute to. In fact, they have been helping young people develop such skills for decades. The genesis of today's afterschool program can be traced back to the turn of the century and the desire of 'boys clubs', settlement houses and churches and other religious organizations to provide safe, supervised environments for children during the after school hours. As afterschool grows, a range of practices are being refined and in turn these practices are being replicated in programs throughout the nation. Since 2000, numerous afterschool evaluations and studies of promising programs continue to identify practices that help children and youth succeed, both in school and out. In addition, the skills gained in afterschool go beyond those that can be measured by grades and test scores. The extra learning time, and time to develop leadership, teamwork and problem-solving skills, are essential to ensuring that today's youth are prepared for tomorrow's workplace. (Contains 19 endnotes.).
The Afterschool Alliance, in partnership with MetLife Foundation, is proud to present the final issue brief in their latest series of four issue briefs examining critical issues facing middle school youth and the vital role afterschool programs play in addressing these issues. This brief explores afterschool and data utilization to improve programming. The afterschool field has made great gains in providing supports and an environment that helps their students succeed in school and beyond. Students are discovering an interest in science, gaining confidence in their speaking abilities, missing school less, connecting with caring adults and more when participating in quality afterschool programs. A distinctive benefit of afterschool programs is that their focus and scope of activities is wide-ranging--they are able to meet the unique needs of their community, which could be to offer a dance program in an area where arts have been scaled back during the regular school day or aligning programming with the Common Core State Standards to serve as an additional source of support for students, teachers and schools. The variety of focus areas also means that there are a number of measures--both inputs and outputs--that can be relevant to their programming. Therefore, it is critical that programs have a clear and focused set of goals, gather and synthesize data that are connected to those goals, and implement a continuous improvement cycle that uses the data in order to build on lessons learned and ensure that they are providing their students with the supports they need. Fortunately, more and more programs are recognizing the critical role of data and more resources and tools are becoming available to help programs put the data to use in order to best meet the needs of their students.