After-school academies
High-performing after-school programs share the goal of helping all students achieve grade-level proficiency or above. Effective after-school programs provide the following essential elements:
- Coordination with the library/media center and computer lab hours to help reinforce learning in the core classes.
- Transportation arrangements so all students have access to the after-school offerings.
- Training so that staff members are prepared to help students with study skills, mathematics, English language arts, and other core subjects.
- Special education inclusion, materials, and trained staff.
In addition, national research has identified five characteristics of effective after-school programs. The study found that effective after-school programs offer relationships and engagement as well as a focus on academic help. The most effective programs:
- Offer a broad array of enrichment opportunities.
- Provide opportunities for skill building and mastery.
- Focus on intentional relationship building.
- Have an experienced manager who is supported by a trained and supervised staff.
- Receive administrative, fiscal, and professional-development support from the sponsoring organization.1
In the Spotlight
Hilltop Middle School, Sweetwater Union High School District
Students who have not achieved intermediate proficiency on the California English Language Development Test (CELDT) by spring are enrolled in a 12-week after-school program to boost English language (EL) writing skills. The school staff used curriculum focusing on popular literature to help EL students gain language skills.
Reyburn Intermediate School, Clovis Unified School District
The After School Intervention class runs in six-week cycles and helps struggling students, including ELs and resource students, learn the skills they need to succeed in all of their academic classes. According to the teacher, struggling students need knowledge broken into chunks. Students take a test after each section and the teacher tracks daily and weekly progress. Results show that student scores in the after-school intervention grow after each lesson and test session.
The No Child Left Behind Act stipulates that, under certain circumstances, students should have access to supplemental educational services (SES), particularly additional academic instruction provided outside of the regular school day. SES, or free tutoring, is designed to increase the academic achievement of students attending schools in Program Improvement (PI) Years two through five. The SES must be high quality, research-based, and specifically designed to increase student academic achievement. Eligible students are all low-income students who attend Title I PI Years two through five schools.2
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Footnotes
1Jennifer Birmingham and others, Shared Features of High-Performing After-School Programs: A Follow-up to the Tasc Evaluation (PDF; Outside Source), Washington, D.C.: Policy Studies Associates, Inc. Prepared for The After-School Corporation (Outside Source) and Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (Outside Source) with support from the U.S. Department of Education, November 2005, i, ii.
2Supplemental Educational Services, California Department of Education .
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