Even before the COVID-19 crisis and its deep economic effects, over a million New Yorkers struggled with food insecurity--particularly in low-income communities of color. Because many families with children rely on meal programs provided to students during the school year, rates of food insecurity tend to increase sharply during the summer months.…

This study adds to the limited literature base on extracurricular debate by using doubly robust inverse probability treatment weighting to estimate the average treatment effect for the treated of preadolescent debate participation on a variety of academic and engagement outcomes among a 10-year longitudinal sample of Baltimore City Public School…

Regular participation in afterschool programs by elementary students in low income communities may lead to improved college and career readiness. This study found that students who had high levels of participation in the LA's BEST afterschool program over three years were five percent less likely to dropout and six percent more likely to complete…

This qualitative study draws on concepts from Self-Determination Theory (SDT) within a positive youth development framework to postulate that participants in an after-school program will derive a sense of enjoyment and challenge in program activities when they perceive that the program supports their psychological needs for competence, autonomy,…

OrchKids has been offering free, year-round music-based programming to students across Baltimore for 10 years. In school year (SY) 2017-18, its out-of-school-time (OST) program was based in six schools and served over 1,000 children in pre-K through 10th grade. The primary goal of OrchKids is to expose students and their family members to music…

Given the potential of afterschool programs to support youth in urban, low-income communities, we examined the role of afterschool classroom ecology in the academic outcomes of Latino and African American youth with and without social-behavioral risk. Using multireporter methods and multilevel analysis, we find that positive classroom ecology…

The purpose of this research is to document and describe the experiences of 15 sixth-grade students in an urban, after-school program entitled Drama Through Reading (DTR), as they co-construct and recreate their interpretations of literature through performance. Through rigorous, systematic observation, listening, re-listening, and documentation…

This study demonstrates the impact of an Early Reading First intervention on preschool children's language and literacy development using an ex post facto, causal-comparative research design. The project's professional development model was evaluated to produce a process and outcome evaluation to answer two overarching research questions: (1) What…

This exploratory study sets out to investigate how LA's BEST, a non-profit after school organization providing services for at-risk students, leverages the organizational, social, and intellectual capitals to enhance student engagement. Six LA's BEST sites were selected to participate in this qualitative study. A grounded theory approach was…