Describes Youth Speaks NY Fifth Annual Teen Poetry Slam. Considers how Youth Speaks offers free after school writing workshops for teens. Notes that this nonprofit spoken word program Youth Speaks plays host to an auditorium of teen poets who "bust at the seams with verse." (SG)

Describes a service learning course for which students participated in a seminar on literacy and an after-school tutoring program for children. Shows how undergraduate representations of literacy share common features with conversations among well-known writers (such as Walter Ong and David Olson) and also implicitly critique them. (TB)

Discusses the Before and After School Clubs program at Vine Street School in Bangor, Maine, which allows students to come to school 30 minutes early or stay 30 minutes late on alternate days to participate in learning activities of their own choice. (MDM)

Discusses approximately 25 instructional materials to give ideas for after school enrichment programs. Lists 10 resources for finding such literature. (SG)

What happens when university curriculum developers are mixed with motivated elementary teachers? ? An awesome learning collaboration that benefits researchers, teachers, and students! That's what the authors discovered when they--university researchers involved in the Physics for Elementary Teachers (PET) project--teamed up with local elementary…

In this article, the author argues that as a school district, it is the educators duty to do whatever it takes to help their students succeed. Every project an educator undertakes is designed to meet their needs. He also states that a program's success depends on the support and input of administrators, the board of education, teachers and the…

This article presents a New York city after-school program started by MOUSE (Making Opportunities for Upgrading Schools and Education), a national nonprofit group that teaches students how to fix computers, and equips them with the communication and problem-solving skills to help them in the working world. The MOUSE program is part of a trend…

The "Research & Action Report," published twice a year, is a window on the activities and initiatives at the Wellesley Centers for Women. The report typically features news about the Centers, interviews with researchers, commentary on recent events or social trends affecting women and girls, announcements of new publications, and…

This paper examines how a game-like 3D Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE), Quest Atlantis (QA), is used in an after-school programme to engage a group of 14 academically at-risk primary students in their learning. It adopts an activity theoretical perspective to identify the disturbances and contradictions during the implementation of the…

The Harvard Family Research Project conducted a research study on the factors associated with whether youth participate in organized out-of-school time (OST) programs and activities. National data was used to examine the many factors and contexts in children's lives that predict their participation. This research summary synthesizes findings from…

This brief represents part 2 in a series on fostering the adoption of evidence-based practices in out-of-school time programs. Many practitioners lack information on how to implement evidence-based practice(s) in their own programs or communities. A major reason for this gap is a lack of research on the process for implementing evidence-based…

Community partnerships are the cornerstone of some of the most successful afterschool programs. For example, the average afterschool program funded by a 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) grant leverages resources through relationships with at least six local organizations. Higher education institutions are one of the most…

The term "sports-based youth development programs" is coined and defined in the context of the community youth development framework. Sports-based youth development programs are out-of-school-time programs that use a particular sport to facilitate learning and life skill development in youth. Community youth development programs use a community…

Disadvantaged students who regularly attend top-notch after-school programs end up, after two years, academically far ahead of peers who spend more out-of-school time in unsupervised activities, according to findings from an eight-state study of those programs. Known as the Promising Afterschool Programs study, the new research examined 35…

Program evaluators need methods that can be used in a variety of situations to help gather data. Photolanguage is one such technique that uses black-and-white photographs to elicit responses from individuals. It is particularly useful in situations where the respondents may give restricted or only minimal data. This article provides the…