scholarly journals School Age Programs and Services Committee: Out of School Time: Inspiring Engagement in Children’s Programming

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Kimberly Grad

Programming for school age children has experienced a radical shift in the last year due to the pandemic. Out-of-school time or “after school” has taken on a different tone as some children learn at home and some are back at school.And yet, with virtual programming libraries continue to provide a bridge between home and school. Children’s librarians are digging deeper into the well of programming ideas to provide engaging library related activities. In our first column, we offer some concrete program ideas that can be utilized throughout the year when school is in session or during summer reading programming.

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 216-229
Author(s):  
Jill Young ◽  
Leanne Kallemeyn

Practitioners and evaluators face several constraints in conducting rigorous evaluations to determine program effect. Researchers have offered the retrospective pretest/posttest design as a remedy to curb response-shift bias and better estimate program effects. This article presents an example of how After School Matters (ASM) tested the use of retrospective pretest/posttest design for evaluating out-of-school time (OST) programs for high school youth participants. Differences between traditional pretest and retrospective pretest scores were statistically significant, but effect sizes were negligible, indicating that both pretests yielded similar results. Interviews with youth led to 3 key findings that have implications for ASM using retrospective pretests with youth: response-shift bias was more prominent in youth interviews than in quantitative findings, youth recommended reordering the questions so that the retrospective pretest appears first to increase comprehension, and acquiescence bias emerged in the interviews. This study demonstrates that the retrospective pretest/posttest design can be an alternative to the traditional pretest/posttest design for OST at ASM. These findings are important for ASM and other youth-serving organizations, which often have limited capacity to survey youth multiple times within 1 program session.


2006 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia A. Lauer ◽  
Motoko Akiba ◽  
Stephanie B. Wilkerson ◽  
Helen S. Apthorp ◽  
David Snow ◽  
...  

Schools and districts are adopting out-of-school-time (OST) programs such as after-school programs and summer schools to supplement the education of low-achieving students. However, research has painted a mixed picture of their effectiveness. To clarify OST impacts, this synthesis examined research on OST programs for assisting at-risk students in reading and/or mathematics. Researchers analyzed 35 OST studies that employed control or comparison groups and met other inclusion criteria. Meta-analyses indicated small but statistically significant positive effects of OST on both reading and mathematics student achievement and larger positive effect sizes for programs with specific characteristics such as tutoring in reading. Whether the OST program took place after school or during the summer did not make a difference in effectiveness.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-92
Author(s):  
Zeynep Gecu-Parmaksiz ◽  
Janette Hughes ◽  
Tess Butler-Ulrich

Historically, there has been a gender gap within the STEM pipeline, resulting in the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields. Current efforts, both within and outside of educational institutions, have been developed to target girls’ specific needs with the aim of supporting girls' interest and engagement in STEM. The following paper examines the social and cultural factors that perpetuate the gender gap in STEM. It also provides a review and critique of six existing Canadian Out of School Time (OST) STEM programs and the principles used in their development and implementation. Conclusions from this review suggest that OST programs, when developed using best practices, may play a crucial role in encouraging girls to pursue a STEM career. Four primary best practices include: social and collaborative learning, topics related to girls' interests, development of STEM identity, and length of the program (for example, programs done over a longer period of time are generally more effective than programs completed over a shorter duration). Although the COVID-19 pandemic has caused some of these programs to migrate online, these four promising practices transcend face-to-face versus online boundaries. As a result, programs should continue to follow these pedagogical approaches to foster girls' interests in STEM. Keywords: gender inequality, out of school time programs, social learning, STEM education, STEM programming


2012 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Hastie ◽  
Hans van der Mars ◽  
Todd Layne ◽  
Danielle Wadsworth

This study examined the effectiveness of three conditions in which 48 fourth-grade students were prompted to be physically active out of school. Using an alternating treatments design (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007) the three intervention conditions included: (a) Baseline: No prompting of students, (b) Teacher Prompts: Verbal prompt to “remember to do something active after school today”, and (c) Teacher Prompts and group-oriented contingencies: Verbal prompts with an index card where students could record their activity to earn bonus points as part of a team challenge. Graphically plotted pedometer data depicting data paths, variability, and trends within and across three conditions showed that students were more active outside of school only when the contingent reinforcement (c) was in place. This suggests that using prompts and group-oriented contingencies within Sport Education appears to be an effective and authentic context for promoting independent (i.e., free play) out-of-school time physical activity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 285-290
Author(s):  
M. Maureen Toomey

After-school and out-of-school time programs are common across the United States and are seen as providing safe and nurturing environments for children, youth, and teens. The History of Afterschool in America documentary succinctly lays out the evolution of after-school and out-of-school time programming. The 60-minute documentary is framed in 12 chapters with narrative from historians, key advocates and leaders, practitioners, and teens. An accompanying learning guide provides discussion questions, key words and phrases, and additional resources. It is a must watch for after-school professionals, youth-serving organizations, and collaborators.


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