Background: Designed in 2012 with a first implementation in 2013, NE STEM 4U is a professional development program for post-secondary students/undergraduates, and serves as a source of outreach, content knowledge generation, and STEM literacy for youth in grades kindergarten through 8th grade (ages 5-14). The model empowers post-secondary students…

Design2Learn (D2L) is a NYC-based afterschool program aimed at increasing middle school students' interest, engagement, and achievement in science. Designed by ExpandED Schools, D2L centers around three core strategies: (1) collaborative teaching between an in-school science teacher and two afterschool educators; (2) curricular bridging, which…

Design2Learn (D2L) is an afterschool program aimed at increasing science interest, engagement, and achievement among middle school students who historically have been underrepresented in STEM. The D2L model, designed and implemented by ExpandED Schools, uses three core strategies to foster students' interest and engagement in science: (1)…

Afterschool continues to be promoted as a complementary setting to school for strengthening science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education (for example, Krishnamurthi, Bevan, Rinehart, & Coulon, 2013). This is a reasonable idea: 10.2 million children and youth in the U.S. participate in structured afterschool programs (Afterschool…

Professional development is vital to the success of afterschool programs. Effective professional development enhances afterschool program quality by facilitating staff performance and knowledge; in addition, professional development is vital for improving student learning outcomes (Bouffard & Little, 2004; Hall & Surr, 2005; Joyce &…

Current policy efforts that seek to improve learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) emphasize the importance of helping all students acquire concepts and tools from computer science that help them analyze and develop solutions to everyday problems. These goals have been generally described in the literature under the…

A quality improvement system (QIS) is an intentional effort to raise the quality of afterschool programming in an ongoing, organized fashion. There are a number of reasons the QIS is gaining popularity. The main reasons community leaders are drawn to improving quality is that they know that 1) higher quality programs will mean better experiences…

Effective professional development is accepted as necessary for the improvement of afterschool program quality, which is itself a cornerstone for improving youth outcomes. But professional development is most effective when both individual participants are engaged and building relevant knowledge and skills, and the organizations to which they…

The purpose of this study was to examine directors' views on the current state and needs of 2009-2010 North Carolina 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) afterschool educational technology professional development (ETPD). The population for this study involved the 2009-2010 North Carolina 21st CCLC directors. In a mixed methods study…

This toolkit offers program managers a hands-on guide for implementing quality programming in the after-school hours. The kit includes tools and techniques that increased the quality of literacy programming and helped improve student reading gains in the Communities Organizing Resources to Advance Learning (CORAL) initiative of The James Irvine…

After-school programs specifically designed to improve students' mathematics achievement in collaboration with classroom teachers' planning and in class daily instruction have been found to be successful in improving student learning (Hock, Pulvers, Deshler, & Schumaker, 2001). The purpose of this article is to describe the results of an…

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…

This publication for principals about after-school programs provides practical assistance with guidelines for administration, resources for information, collaboration, and funding, along with evaluation checklists. Drawing increasing government attention, after-school programs are overwhelmingly popular with the public as a means to reduce…

Recognizing the importance of and need for high quality after-school care for 5- to 14-year-olds, the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration commissioned a set of 9 School Age Care Technical Assistance Papers discussing the steps in designing high quality programs. This two-videotape set, based on those papers, provides guidance to…