This evaluation provides an in-depth analysis of PASA’s AfterZone, a model based on a neighborhood “campus” structure where services are offered at multiple sites in a geographically clustered area.
Research and Evaluation
Evaluations of expanded learning and afterschool models that were developed by Every Hour Counts partners have added to the mounting evidence that high-quality expanded learning opportunities improve both social-emotional development and academic achievement for disadvantaged children and youth. Citing research that documents the benefits of these programs is an effective strategy for garnering resources and support for such opportunities.
AfterZones: Creating a Citywide System to Support and Sustain High-Quality After-School Programs
AfterZone: Outcomes for Youth Participating in Providence’s Citywide After-School System
This study sheds light on the potential of afterschool systems to produce benefits for youth by evaluating AfterZone’s effects on participants, as well as one of the few rigorous (quasi-experimental) evaluations of an afterschool system.
After-School Programs and Academic Impact: A Study of Chicago’s After School Matters
This study highlights Chicago’s After School Matters (ASM), a program that offers an exceptional opportunity to study whether an afterschool program designed to help high school students learn work skills can increase their commitment to succeeding in school.
Grad Tracker
This data-monitoring tool created by TASC is used to gauge students’ progress toward graduation by analyzing three categories of student data: academic proficiency, school attendance and behavior in school. Through Grad Tracker, TASC measures how many students are on track to graduate; how many are closing in on that status; and how many are not on track to graduate and therefore at risk of dropping out.
Student Attendance and Out of School Time in Baltimore
Family League of Baltimore City
In this summary, the Family League of Baltimore City shares the data from tracking student school day attendance and out of school time participation. The data has consistently shown that participants in Family League funded programs are more likely to be high attenders to school and less likely to be chronically absent.
Data-Sharing: Federal Rules and Best Practices to Improve Out-of-School-Time Programs and Student Outcomes
In this paper, the Partnership for Children and Youth reviews the importance of data-sharing across school systems and the expanded learning community and offers strategies and case studies describing how data-sharing can work within the parameters of FERPA and other privacy laws.
The Achieve, Connect, Thrive Framework
The Achieve, Connect, Thrive framework has been used in Boston, MA to unite stakeholders from across the youth-serving field around the skills young people need to succeed. Derived from the best of the youth development field and afterschool program providers themselves, the skills in the framework are those that research from a number of fields, including education and developmental psychology, suggests are important for success in school, college and 21st century careers.
