Posted on January 22, 2004

Education

As part of its initiative to improve after-school programs, the William T. Grant Foundation examined four major evaluation efforts in the field to determine their implications for policy and practice. The Impact of After-School Programs: Interpreting the Results of Four Recent Evaluations (33 pages, PDF), a working paper by UCLA professor Thomas J. Kane, analyzes evaluations of the After-School Corporation's New York City programs, the federally-supported 21st Century Community Learning Centers, the Extended-Service Schools Initiative, and the San Francisco Beacons Initiative. A companion commentary (4 pages, PDF) by Kane and foundation president Robert C. Granger outlines four recommendations for policy makers, practitioners, advocates, scholars, and funders: After-school programs must increase attendance to achieve goals; the field must be realistic about how much an after-school program can impact test scores; programs must reach children who would otherwise be left unsupervised after school hours; and examples of successful programs should be shared and duplicated.