Quality After-School
After-school programs are expected to achieve many of the goals of schools, families and communities, in an effort to help boost academic achievement, stem youth crime, increase children’s health and well being, and support working families.
Quality after-school programs
Understanding the effects of a child growing up in a stressful environment and the benefits of an effective after-school program, United Way of Massachusetts Bay (UWMB) set out to understand what makes a quality after-school program and subsequently what does it take to get them up to speed.
Assuming its role as a community leader, it partnered with the MA Dept. of Education, the MA Office of Child Care Services, and researchers from the Intercultural Center for Research in Education (INCRE) and the National Institute of Out-of-School Time (NIOST) at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College. In the fall of 2005 UWMB released Pathways to Success for Youth: What counts in After-school, also known as MARS, the Massachusetts After-school Research Study.
This groundbreaking research was the first of its kind to explore the relationship and connections between staff and program quality with academic and social outcomes for youth. Over 4,100 youth participated in the study from nearly 80 programs in 10 Massachusetts communities. It confirmed the importance and need for family involvement and that better paid and better trained staff spend more quality activity time with children, which is the single most important factor in the success of an after-school program.
With the understanding of what articulates program quality, UWMB is now working to build the capacity of after-school programs through grants to help them define and provide high quality learning experiences for school age youth, connect more effectively with parents and schools, and use research-based tools to measure success.
Benefits? One more kid in a structured quality out-of-school time program means opportunity to connect with a caring adult and explore academic possibility.
For complementary information about our work with connecting school and after-school and engaging families, please go to www.uwmb.org/ourwork.