In 1999, the U.S. Department of Education contracted with Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., and Decision Information Resources, Inc., to evaluate the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program. The evaluation team collected student outcome data in five areas: (1) after-school supervision; (2) location; (3) activities; (4) academic…

Interviewed and observed 8th graders involved in the Community Youth Research after school project (which taught youth how to investigate community needs and effect systemic change), examining how they described and interpreted their surroundings and directed their concerns toward social action. Participants identified many problems, making sense…

Presents four research-based strategies for promoting reading achievement in after-school programs: literacy centers, a print-rich environment, play-based learning, and theme-related activities. Discusses the importance of making books readily available to children, including opportunities for students to read to one another and discuss what they…

Describes four journal articles and two documents found in the ERIC database that deal with aspects of developing friendships in the elementary school. Materials deal with trust in peer relationships, developmental lag and peer relations, after school programs and development of friendships, empathy and social competence, and the role of…

This article presents a service delivery model for treating schoolchildren who stutter, involving weekly treatment sessions with groups of students after the school day, along with monthly meetings with their parents, focused both on changing attitudes about stuttering and on controlling stuttering behaviors. Results support the efficacy of a…

Innovative school-age day care programs include Tennessee's Extended School Program; Hawaii's After-School Plus program; San Antonio's Kid's Involvement Network (offering middle school supervision); Aurora, Colorado's state-licensed Year-Round School Recreation Plan; and Pomona, California's Child Development Program. These public school programs…

Describes a modest afterschool rites-of-passage program for District of Columbia ninth graders that provides doses of African culture, practical skills, adult guidance, and community service opportunities. The program is reinforced by a cross-cultural junior high curriculum drawing from traditional African wisdom and modern pragmatism. (MLH)

A Montana superintendent and presidential appointee explains federal initiatives (funded programs and directives) that school leaders can apply to their own violence-prevention work. These include support for zero-tolerance policies, community programs, afterschool activities, and school-uniform policies. Resource centers are listed. (MLH)

In 1998, the principal of a rural Oregon elementary school used a 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant and Title I funds to design a program to address homeless children's personal and social well-being. Kids eat a nutritious breakfast, take showers, get clothes washed, receive positive feedback, and participate in after-school…

Describes the school-based extracurricular programs in several societies in East Asia, suggesting that Americans use such information to develop more effective extracurricular programs. In those countries, schools are responsible for developing and conducting extracurricular programs, which they consider important for keeping students productively…

Describes afterschool science program, implemented by a group of women engineers, to provide 18 African American middle-school female students with hands-on science activities related to the manufacture and design of automobiles. Women engineers served as mentors and role models. Program had positive influence on students' attitudes towards math,…

Provides a historical and contemporary description of school-age child care and after-school programs. Focuses on funding, community initiatives, affordability and supply, program outcomes, program quality, and the role of community planning. (KB)

One difficulty of evaluating after-school programs is that providers often lack resources necessary to employ rigorous evaluation designs. One strategy is to investigate the relationship between attendance and outcomes while covarying for important potentially confounding variables. The current study investigates the influence of after-school…

Comprehensive community care principles emphasize the importance of positive community-based activities for children with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), and caregivers frequently indicate the need for recreation and after-school programs. This study examined the involvement of children with EBD in positive youth development programs and…

It has been widely proposed that student voices should play a crucial role in designing and implementing curriculum and instruction that promote students' engagement in science learning. In this study we examined the voices of two seventh grade boys from a low-income urban community as they worked together in an after-school program to create a…