Afterschool and Ed Reform
From Wiki
AFTERSCHOOL AND ED REFORM-- Forum for sharing ideas and planning strategies
The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) through the Race to the Top [1], Invest in Innovation Fund, School Improvement Grants and more, offers several funding opportunities to states and districts to turnaround struggling schools and improve student academic success.
The Afterschool Alliance has created the Afterschool and Ed Reform wiki as a forum to help accelerate the development and sharing of evidence-based best practices and strategies to spur discussion and generate viable proposals for including expanded learning opportunities in districts’ and states’ ed reform plans. For more background on ARRA, see our Policy and Action Center [2] and the ED's website[3]
Visit our Afterschool and The Economic Recovery Bill Wiki [4]
How to participate in the discussion: Individuals should email mdauphin@afterschoolalliance.org to obtain a username and password. Next, click on the “edit” tab to post ideas, comments, questions or concerns under relevant topic headings.
Contents |
How Afterschool Can Strengthen Ed Reform: Promising Practices, Quotes, Facts, and Resources
Premise: Quality before-school, afterschool and summer programs extend and expand learning opportunities for students and contribute to student success. Topics of disccusion and relevant data are listed below:
Promising Practices:
• Afterschool has steadily grown in our schools over the past decade until it has become an expectation that any contemporary school includes an afterschool component.
• Afterschool, before-school and summer programs provides time to support student learning. [5]
• Afterschool is the perfect setting for project-based learning.[6]
• Afterschool impacts student success.[7] • Afterschool increases connections to school.
• Afterschool supports increased educational attainment. [8]
• Afterschool has public and parental support. [9]
• Afterschool, particularly the 21st Century Community Learning Center program has an expanding and accessible technical assistance infrastructure.
Quotes On Afterschool and Ed Reform:
See what President Barack Obama, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and other national leaders are saying about afterschool's role in ed reform.
Quotes by President Obama:
“Now, even as we foster innovation in where our children are learning, let's also foster innovation in when our children are learning. We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed for when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land at the end of each day. That calendar may have once made sense, but today it puts us at a competitive disadvantage. Our children - listen to this - our children spend over a month less in school than children in South Korea - every year. That's no way to prepare them for a 21st century economy. That's why I'm calling for us not only to expand effective after-school programs, but to rethink the school day to incorporate more time - whether during the summer or through expanded-day programs for children who need it.” Remarks by President Obama to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, March 13, 2009
“These are barriers we are beginning to tear down one by one -- by rewarding work with an expanded tax credit; by making housing more affordable; by giving ex-offenders a second chance. (Applause.) These are barriers we're targeting through our White House Office on Urban Affairs, through programs like Promise Neighborhoods that builds on Geoffrey Canada's success with the Harlem Children's Zone -- (applause) -- that foster a comprehensive approach to ending poverty by putting all children on a pathway to college, and giving them the schooling and after-school support that they need to get there. Remarks by President Obama to the NAACP Centenial Convention, July 16, 2009
Quotes by Secretary Duncan--
“School districts across the country are using Recovery Act funds to lengthen their school days or school years. During my seven years as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, I saw schools that extended learning time make gains in student achievement. When done right, extended learning time allows schools to creatively add activities that reinforce what students learn during the regular school day and expand student participation in the arts and other enrichment activities.” From “Hawaii erred in cutting education,” op-ed by Secretary Arne Duncan, Friday, October 23, 2009 in Honolulu Advertiser
“Learning doesn't just happen in a classroom between school bells…Children learn all day long. So it's vital to give students and their families the tools, the facilities and the opportunity to continue working on traditional academic subjects as well as a place for broader lessons in areas like art and music to enrich their lives." Secretary Duncan October 22, 2009 in US Department of Education press release.
School need “longer hours with a variety of afterschool activities.” We must “bring in community partners to provide extended learning.” Secretary Duncan, October 28, 2009, Remarks at the Center for American Progress.
“Another key ingredient of reform is to add more time for instruction. I grew up in my mother's after school program in Chicago, so I know firsthand the importance of after school and summer programs. That is why we are asking districts to consider using Recovery Act funding as well as Title 1 funding to extend the school day and the school year.” Remarks from a hearing of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies of the Senate Appropriations Committee, June 3, 2009
“We need innovative, new instructional models. One of the first areas where we can foster innovation is the amount of time our students spend learning. Other top-performing countries do not take two months off in the summer. They do not dismiss students at two in the afternoon. Instead, they spend 30 or 40 more days per year in school and offer safe, constructive activities that keep kids learning. We must expand quality after-school programs and rethink the school day to incorporate more time-whether that's by extending hours or offering more summer school.” Remarks by Secretary Duncan to the National Science Teachers Association, March 20, 2009
“…I think we have to think very differently about the notion of what a school is and what a school does and where our schools truly become community centers with a wide range of activities in that building during the school day, before school, after school, that address the whole child's needs, that's the only way we're going to be successful educationally.”
June 09 Speech to IES
Additional Quotes by state and national leaders
“There is a growing body of research evidence indicating that high-quality after-school programs can reduce risk-taking behaviors, provide positive developmental opportunities, and improve the academic performance of students, particularly those at risk of academic failure.” Council of Chief State School Officers
Facts and Resources:
• Afterschool Programs: An Essential Partner in State and District Education Reform Efforts: http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/documents/SupportingStrugglingSchools.pdf
• The Promising Afterschool Programs Study, a study of about 3,000 low-income, ethnically-diverse elementary and middle school students, found that those who regularly attended high-quality programs over two years demonstrated gains of up to 20 percentiles and 12 percentiles in standardized math test scores respectively, compared to their peers who were routinely unsupervised during afterschool hours.
• A meta-analysis by the University of Illinois at Chicago-based Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), “The Impact of After-School Programs that Promote Personal and Social Skills,” found that “Youth who participate in after-school programs improve significantly in three major areas: feelings and attitudes, indicators of behavioral adjustment, and school performance. More specifically, afterschool programs succeeded in improving youths’ feelings of self-confidence and self esteem, school bonding (positive feelings and attitudes toward school), positive social behaviors, school grades and achievement test scores.” The meta-analysis spanned 73 separate studies of afterschool programs.
• A 2006 meta-analysis synthesizing 35 out-of-school time (OST) afterschool program studies, conducted by Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, found that afterschool programs had positive and significant effects among students at risk of failure in reading or math, producing positive results on reading achievement, particularly in lower elementary grade levels and in high school students. Researchers also found positive and significant effects on math achievement, particularly for middle and high school students.
• "Like early childhood programs, expanded learning opportunities—such as afterschool, summer learning, tutoring, and mentoring programs—help mitigate challenges faced by students at risk of dropping out. High-quality expanded learning opportunities improve students’ behavior, academic performance, and school engagement and attendance. At-risk 9th-grade students who participated in an expanded learning opportunity called the Quantum Opportunities Program graduated high school at a rate about 20 percentage points higher than their peers who did not participate. Governors can target federal and state support for expanded learning opportunities to populations that are at a high risk of dropping out. For example, California’s After School Safety and Enrichment for Teens (ASSETs) program prioritizes high-poverty schools when awarding grants for high school afterschool programs using federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers funding. Students who participated in ASSETs passed the California High School Exit Exam at significantly higher rates than other students.126 Sixty-three percent of participating students passed the mathematics portion of the exam, compared with 53 percent of similar students who did not participate in the program". -From the 2009 National Governors' Association Report, "Achieving Graduation for All: A Governor’s Guide to Dropout Prevention and Recovery". [10]
SEE MORE FACTS AND RESEARCH ON AFTERSCHOOL: http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/research.cfm
Turning Around Struggling Schools
Premise: The Administration has set a goal of intervening in the lowest-performing schools and LEAs; increasing the supply of high-quality charter schools, and turning around struggling schools. Afterschool has been shown to improve student performance. The more students have access to afterschool, the better our schools will do. Afterschool, properly applied, can help turn around a school. Topics of discussion and relevant data are listed below:
Race to The Top Funding Requests and Ideas:
• Provide funding for afterschool programs out of the grant application so that every underperforming school has an afterschool program can serve every child who wants to participate in a program.
• Set aside 5% of Race to the Top funds to increase the number of students serve at current 21st Century Community Learning Center programs located in underperforming schools.
School Improvement Grants Funding Requests and Ideas:
• Community based partners can work with LEAs to provide expanded learning opportunities for students during and after school hours by providing engaging, hands-on activities that raise school attendance, graduation rates and overall school success.
• In the proposed criteria for School Improvement Grants under Title I, Part A, the Department of Education refers to expanded learning opportunities and community-oriented supports as key components of the “Turnaround” and “Transformational” models identified as effective interventions.
Afterschool and School Turnaround Data/Evidence:
• Turnaround schools work together with community-based organizations to provide not only after-school and mentoring programs for students, but family math, writing, and mediation programs, as well as family resource centers, full-service schools, early childhood programs, school-community gardens, and even community schools that serve students, their families, and their communities. Just as supporting teachers is critical to student achievement, so is supporting families and community members who, in turn, serve youth. Closing the Achievement Gap, 2003 Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
• In 14 of the 15 elementary schools, at least one before-school and/or after-school program was initiated as part of the turnaround process... By providing before- and after-school opportunities for students to receive additional instruction and remain under adult supervision, the turnaround schools enhanced their status as community centers. Parents appreciated having constructive options for their children beyond the regular school day. Teachers acknowledged that the only way some of their students would ever be able to “catch up” with their higher-achieving peers was to extend their structured learning time past the closing bell. Keys to sustaining successful school turnaround, University of Virginia, 2005
• "Expanding Learning Opportunities: It Takes More than Time": http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/issue_briefs/issue_expand_learn_29.pdf The Administration has demonstrated a growing interest in extended learning-time, via a longer school day and/or school year, as a strategy to boost student achievement and help turn around struggling schools. The Afterschool Alliance's Issue Brief "Expanding Learning Opportunities: It Takes More than Time" provides some tools and resources on ways afterschool programs are successfully expanding learning opporutnies by making good use of extended time to offer new and different ways of learning.
P-20/Cradle to Career
Premise: Aligning expanded learning opportunities such as afterschool and summer programs with the Cradle to Career agenda will increase the success of all investments.
Race to The Top (RTT) Funding Requests and Ideas:
• Provide additional funds to support professional development for afterschool TA and PD providers. The extra training will help increase providers’ capacity to better understand and use the new standards, assessments and data systems to support student learning.
School Improvement Grants (SIGs) Funding Requests and Ideas:
Invest in Innovation (i3) Funding Requests and Ideas:
Afterschool and P-20 Data/Evidence:
"Investments in early childhood education and expanded learning opportunities are mutually reinforcing. A recent study found that, among disadvantaged students, attending quality preschool would boost graduation rates from 41 percent to 66 percent. Moreover, investing in additional supports in a balanced manner as the children age would raise the graduation rate from 66 percent to 91 percent.128 Similar to how compounding interest over time leads to exponentially larger returns on fiscal investments, steady human capital investments in young people—tipped toward the younger years of a child’s life—pay the greatest dividends". ---2009 National Governors' Association Report, "Achieving Graduation for All: A Governor’s Guide to Dropout Prevention and Recovery" [11]
STEM
Premise: Creating a STEM afterschool and summer programs will increase interest in and deepen knowledge around science, technology, engineering and math.
Race to The Top Funding Requests and Ideas: Fund a Summer of STEM program at every underperforming school in the state.
Afterschool and STEM Data/Evidence:
Common Core Standards and Assessments
Premise: The Administration has set a goal to increase states’ participation in a comprehensive system with rigorous standards and assessments that prepare students for success in college and careers. Afterschool programs and staff will need extra professional development to learn how to incorporate the new standards into afterschool practice and learn to use new data systems to improve student outcomes.
Race to The Top Funding Requests and Ideas:
• Provide additional funds to support professional development for afterschool TA and PD providers. The extra training will help increase providers’ capacity to better understand and use the new standards, assessments and data systems to support student learning.
School Improvement Grants Funding Requests and Ideas:
Invest in Innovation Funding Requests and Ideas:
Afterschool and STEM Data/Evidence:
Afterschool State Contacts and Leaders
People are joining together across the country to push for quality, affordable afterschool programs for all youth. Networks of afterschool program providers and advocates are already working or forming in several states. Visit the Afterschool Alliance's Policy and Action Center for a clickable map of local afterschool resources and connect with the 38 Statewide Afterschool Networks: http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/policyStateMap.cfm
