Preliminary findings from a study of thirty-five afterschool programs showed that such programs can help to boost students’ test scores. The three-year study study by Policy Studies Associates, Promising Afterschool Programs, found that disadvantaged students who attended high-quality programs on a regular basis were found to be academically ahead of students who attended less structured or supervised activities.
Study design
In order to understand the research, it’s important to understand how programs were assessed. The 2,914 students in the study were divided into three categories:
- Program Only: students who attended afterschool programs two or three days a week and attended no other activities outside the school day.
- Program Plus: students who attended the afterschool programs and were also involved in music, sports, church-sponsored activities or other enrichment opportunities during out-of-school hours.
- Low Supervision: students who attended a variety of activities only one to three days a week.
Better academic performance
It turns out that the more students were engaged in supervised afterschool activities, the better they did in school. What’s especially interesting about this is that the programs they attended weren’t academic programs. Deborah Lowe Vandell, the lead author for the report, was quoting in Education Week as speculating that because students were developing skills like “persistence, focus, and engagement,” these skills may have led to improved math scores because these are skills that students need to excel in a classroom setting.
Fewer negative behaviors
Engagement in afterschool programs doesn’t just translate to better grades. In fact, the 6th and 7th grade students who were regularly engaged and involved in afterschool showed lower rates of drug and alcohol abuse than the students who attended less frequently.
The findings are no surprise to advocates, despite research released in a 2005 Mathematica evaluation of the federally funded 21st Century Community Learning Center program that showed results to the contrary. Educators have long heralded the social and emotional benefits of afterschool and see this new study as evidence that afterschool can play a critical part in a young person’s future success.
The future of afterschool
In the face of these promising results, advocates fear that studies like these may be misinterpreted or misused by the federal government. The reaction to the 2005 Mathematica study resulted in a 40% decrease in afterschool funding.
Today, many afterschool programs struggle year-to-year to maintain funding, suffer from high staff turnover, and are lost in the shuffle during school district contract negotiations. Is it reasonable to hold them to this new standard? These findings could prove to be critical information in the age of accountability and No Child Left Behind.
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