The United States is in the top ten out of 108 countries for the highest juvenile offender percentage (Harrendorf, Heiskanen, & Malby, 2010). Interaction with the juvenile court system has significant iatrogenic effects (Steinberg, Chung, & Little, 2004; Gatti, Tremblay, & Vitaro, 2009; McCord, 1992; Gatti, Tremblay, & Vitaro,…

The future of the nation, and the future of world civilization, will soon rest in the hands of today's youth (Kleon & Rinhart, 1998). Youth organizations such as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and 4-H provide lifelong leadership and life skills that youth of all ages will continue to use throughout their life. Leadership and positive youth…

Super Star Chef is an experiential summer youth nutrition education and cooking program designed to enhance participants' nutrition knowledge, food preparation skills, cooking self-efficacy, and intention to eat more fruits and vegetables. In a program evaluation comprising a single-sample pretest-posttest design, participants' pretest and…

"Preparing Children to Thrive: Standards for Social and Emotional Learning Practices in School-Age Settings" is designed to help organizational and program leaders see clearly what social and emotional learning (SEL) among children (ages 5-13) would look like and feel like in real program settings, and to draw attention to promising…

The Afterschool Alliance, in partnership with Dollar General Literacy Foundation, is proud to present this issue brief examining the vital role afterschool programs play to build students' literacy skills. This issue brief will explore the additional support needed to help students with their reading, writing and critical thinking skills, as well…

This fifth annual "Boston Opportunity Agenda Report Card" provides the most up-to-date information available on Boston's education pipeline, from kindergarten through college graduation, including measures for school readiness, 3rd grade reading proficiency, 10th-grade academic proficiency, high school completion, dropout rates, college…

Improving youth science comprehension in the United States is imperative to reverse current trends in student achievement and to meet an expected shortage of scientists in the future. This lag in achievement scores and need for future scientists is a problem. One challenge is to link inquiry-based learning and experiential education with…

Purpose: As there is little research that investigates the experiences of minority boys participating in youth development programs (Fashola, 2003), the current research focused on a sport-based youth development program for early adolescent Black and Latino boys in Hartford, CT. Specifically, the present study explored (a) what attracted minority…

This 3-year longitudinal study investigated the associations of student (aged 9 to 10 years at the beginning of the study; n = 281; 51% girls) participation in extracurricular activities with teacher-rated socioemotional behavior and school achievement. MANOVA results showed that, after controlling for the grade level and the initial level of the…

This bibliography summarizes recent research on the structure and effectiveness of workforce development programs. While the term "workforce development" can mean many things, this document focuses on programs to help low-skill, low-wage and displaced workers increase their employment and earnings, as well as labor market trends that…

Constructivism theory (Crotty, 1998) served as the framework to investigate the reciprocal nature of a service-learning project that involved physical education pre-service teachers and urban underserved youth. Participants included three physical education teacher education (PETE) candidates and 15 youth between the ages of 6 and 13 who were…

Group counseling has been highlighted as one effective intervention for at-risk students, yet debate remains as to the comparable efficacy of traditional interventions versus thematic interventions. This study compared two psychosocial educational programs, the PEGS and ARK Programs, designed to help elementary school students with social skills…

Empowering youth through the exploration of their possible futures is a fresh and innovative approach to the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility model (TPSR). The purpose of this study was to examine the combination of TPSR with the theory of possible selves. This combination, called the Career Club, was a program specifically designed to…

In September 2005, the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) launched the Out-of-School Time Programs for Youth (OST) initiative to provide young people throughout New York City with access to high-quality programming after school, on holidays, and during the summer at no cost to their families. Working closely with…

In September 2005, the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) launched the Out-of-School Time Programs for Youth (OST) initiative to provide young people throughout New York City with access to high-quality programming after school, on holidays, and during the summer at no cost to their families. Working closely with…