ERIC ED484550: Out Of School time Programs for At-Risk Students. Noteworthy Perspectives

2004·3.2 MB·English

by  ERIC

Noteworthy
P E R S P E C T I V E S
OUT-OF-SCHOOL TIME
PROGRAMS FOR
AT-RISK STUDENTS
by Kirsten Miller
and David Snow
© 2004 McREL
To order a copy of Noteworthy Perspectives:
Out-of-School Time Programs for At-Risk Students,
contact McREL:
Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning
2550 S. Parker Road, Suite 500
Aurora, CO 80014-1678
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.mcrel.org
This publication is based on work sponsored wholly,
or in part, by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S.
Department of Education, under Contract No. ED-01-CO-
0006. The content of this publication does not necessarily
reflect the views of IES, the department, or any other
agency of the U.S. government.
iii
© 2004 McREL
Table of Contents
Preface..............................................................................................................v
Chapter 1 Introduction.....................................................................................................1
Chapter 2 Effective OST Reading Programs..............................................................9
Chapter 3 Effective OST Mathematics Programs...................................................21
Chapter 4 Moving Forward: Developing and Administering OST Programs......33
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© 2004 McREL
Preface
v
© 2004 McREL
Preface
PREFACE
Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL), located in Aurora,
Colorado, is a private, nonprofit organization founded in 1966. McREL’s mission
is to make a difference in the quality of education through applied research, product
development, and service.
T his publication was created through ing efforts to build on its expertise, turn
McREL’s contract with the U.S. research into practical guidance, and
Department of Education’s Institute work with schools, districts, and states to
of Education Sciences to serve as improve their practices and capitalize on
the regional educational laboratory for the great potential that standards-based
the Central Region states of Colorado, education holds for students.
Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota,
South Dakota, and Wyoming. In this role, There are a number of out-of-school-time
McREL is implementing a comprehensive, research reports that are not presented
problem-based research, development, and here because program effects on at-risk
service program designed to create the students were not studied, or because they
knowledge, tools, and strategies needed did not meet the rigorous design criteria re-
to transform low-performing schools into quired for inclusion in McREL’s synthesis.
high-performing learning communities. These other studies are, nonetheless, good
sources of information and programmatic
For more than a decade, McREL has been at ideas, and they are worthy of review. This
the forefront of research, practice, product Noteworthy, however, is intended to bring
development, and evaluation related to a research-based perspective to those who
standards-based education. McREL’s na- seek to enhance their understanding of
tional leadership area under the regional out-of-school-time programming for at-risk
laboratory contract is standards-based edu- students. The authors sincerely hope that
cational practice. readers will find this publication to be an
informative and practical resource for use
This issue of Noteworthy, written primarily in understanding, evaluating, and design-
for school and district leaders, policymak- ing out-of-school-time programs.
ers, and program administrators, draws
largely from McREL’s recent research syn- The authors wish to acknowledge the con-
thesis, The Effectiveness of Out-of-School- tributions of a number of individuals in
Time Strategies in Assisting Low-Achieving the preparation of this publication. In par-
Students in Reading and Mathematics (Lauer, ticular, thanks go to the other authors of
Akiba, Wilkerson, Apthorp, Snow, & McREL’s recent synthesis, Patricia Lauer,
Martin-Glenn, 2004). This publication Helen Apthorp, Stephanie Wilkerson,
represents part of McREL’s continu- Mya Martin-Glenn, and Motoko Akiba.
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© 2004 McREL
Effective OST
Without their work, along with the assis- of the research that supports this publication. C H A P T E R 1
Reading Programs
tance of Zoe Barley, Becky Van Buhler, Terry Last, but certainly not least, special thanks to
Young, Barbara Aiduk, and Robyn Alsop, Barbara Gaddy and Ceri Dean for their work
this publication could not have been written. on this project. With vision and care these
Appreciation also is extended to external re- two educators have brought this Noteworthy
viewers Joyce Bales and David Waters, and though many iterations to this final version.
to McREL staff members Elena Bodrova, Lou
Cicchinelli, Maggie Cooper, Bryan Goodwin, Reference
Jodi Holzman, Danette Parsley, and Adrienne
Lauer, P. A., Akiba, M., Wilkerson, S. B.,
Schure for their helpful comments. The
Apthorp, H. S., Snow, D., & Martin-Glenn,
authors also would like to acknowledge Brian M. (2004). The effectiveness of out-of-school time
Lancaster’s design of the cover of this publi- strategies in assisting low-achieving students in reading
cation and desktop publishing assistance. A and mathematics. Aurora, CO: Mid-continent
debt of gratitude also is owed to the authors Research for Education and Learning.
1
© 2004 McREL
Effective OST
Introduction
C H A P T E R 11111
Reading Programs
A t some point in their lives, ev-
IN THIS CHAPTER
eryone has said it: there aren’t
enough hours in the day. For • The Evolution of OST
many children with learning programs
diffi culties, and their teachers, this old • Past Research
maxim rings all too true. When children • The McREL Out-of-School Time
fall behind in a content area or areas, there Research Review
may not be suffi cient time in the school
day to offer the remedial instruction neces-
grams have noted that there is increasing
sary to get them up to speed. One potential
public support for the development and
solution for making up this defi cit is out-of-
funding of after-school programs in public
school time, or OST, programs.
schools (The After-School Corporation,
As the name implies, out-of-school time 1999; Fashola, 2002).
programs are targeted to the hours that
school-age children are not in school.
This chapter provides historical back-
The most common OST formats are
ground on OST programs in the United
after-school and summer-school programs.
States, a look at the context within which
Researchers also have studied before-
OST programs are now being developed,
school and Saturday school programs.
and an overview of the body of available
OST research. The chapter also briefl y
In 2001, 6 million of the 54 million K–8
describes the McREL synthesis framework,
children in the United States participated
on which this issue of Noteworthy is par-
in after-school programs (De Kanter,
tially based.
2001). These programs were either com-
munity-sponsored after-school programs
The Evolution of OST Programs
or school-based extended-day programs.
Between 1994 and 2001, the number of Though out-of-school time programs as we
schools offering after-school programs now know them (e.g., after-school, summer
doubled (De Kanter, 2001). But according school) were not fully implemented in the
to the National Institute on Out-of-School United States until the 1970s and 1980s,
Time (2004), millions of children between the roots of OST run far deeper, extend-
the ages of 6 and 12 do not participate in ing as far back as the late 1800s (Harvard
any kind of adult-supervised after-school Family Research Project, 2000). Out-of-
activity. Advocates of after-school pro- school time programs fi rst began to receive
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© 2004 McREL
Chapter 1: Introduction
federal funding during World War II, middle-income neighborhoods, there is a
when the U.S. government began funding greater need for low-income children’s out-
after-school programs as a means of pro- of-school time to be supervised by adults.
viding childcare for women entering the However, children from low-income fami-
workforce for the fi rst time. Government lies are less likely to have after-school care-
funding of these programs ceased with the givers available in their homes.
end of the war, when many women again
left the workforce. The push to “even the odds” for the
nation’s low-income children began to
In the 1950s, formal summer school pro- pick up momentum in the 1960s. During
grams emerged, originally as a potential his 1964 Presidential campaign, Lyndon
solution for the prevention of behavior Johnson spoke of an America “where no
problems. Summer school administra- child will go unfed and no youngster will
tors, however, quickly began to see these go unschooled.” Title I of the original
program sessions as a good avenue for re-
mediation.
FROM THE FIELD:
A number of societal factors have been
What advantages do you see in serving
cited by researchers as affecting the push to
at-risk students in OST programs?
create summer school programs refl ecting
an academic emphasis, including (1) family In our after-school classes, children are
infl uences (e.g., maternal employment and often in a class of their interest and/or a
single parent households), (2) the need for
subject they need extra help with. These
the United States to maintain a globally
classes are smaller in size than a regular
competitive education system, and (3) the
classroom, so the students receive more
emphasis on rigorous learning standards
one-on-one attention. With the smaller
and minimum student profi ciency re-
quirements. Cooper, Charlton, Valentine, teacher ratios, children can get the
and Muhlenbruck (2000) contend that, individual help and attention they need,
although additional purposes of summer
thus increasing their skill level, which
school programs will likely continue to be
in turn leads to higher self confidence.
identifi ed, their focus on academic reme-
Children also get the opportunity to meet
diation will probably always remain.
other children their age and/or work in a
Historically, meeting the needs of low- multi-age setting.
income children has been a primary reason
Denise Southwell, Teacher
for the development of OST programs,
Saline Community Education
particularly after-school programs. Because
Saline, MI
safety tends to be a greater concern in
low-income neighborhoods than it is in
2 3
Noteworthy Perspectives: Out-of-School Time Programs for At-Risk Students © 2004 McREL