A wide body of research shows that consistent participation in high-quality afterschool and summer programs, also called out-of-school time or OST, provides substantial benefits to children and youth and their communities. Youth are more prone to engage in juvenile delinquency, substance abuse and other risky behaviors after 3:00 p.m. if there are few positive OST programs available. Municipal leaders are also well aware of the impact of high school dropout rates on crime and unemployment, and are increasingly supporting out-of-school learning opportunities as a strategy for promoting school and career success. This strategy guide provides cities with guidance on how to create enriching, relevant and supportive OST environments for middle and high school youth that will help put them on a path to success. The guide outlines key strategies that show the most promise for maximizing scarce local resources for the benefit of older youth, coupled with city examples from small, midsized and large cities. The practices described in the guide draw upon research on the unique developmental needs of middle and high school aged youth and what seems to work best in recruitment and retention of these youth. Ideas are presented for creating citywide "infrastructure" to help ensure that older youth not only attend OST programs, but do so at high rates of participation in order to maximize gains. Many of the ideas require little or no additional spending, but instead encourage creative use of partnerships and policies to achieve positive results for older youth. (Contains 8 resources and 17 footnotes.).

In cities and towns across America, millions of children and youth get out of school by mid-afternoon but have neither a safe, supervised place to go nor a structured or engaging activity in which to participate. Because the hours between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. are when young people are most likely to be affected by crime or to engage in risky behaviors, the lack of afterschool opportunities presents significant challenges to parents, community members, and city, state, and federal leaders. Many local elected officials also recognize the importance of providing young people with access to challenging, relevant, and enriching activities that address other city goals and priorities. Concerned about quality of life and the city's economic vitality, municipal leaders use afterschool programs to support academic achievement, improve public safety, help working parents become more productive, and combat childhood and youth obesity. Because state policies impact local efforts and vice versa, partnerships between municipal leaders and statewide afterschool networks can draw upon local knowledge to emphasize the importance of afterschool and strengthen both state and local afterschool initiatives. This strategy guide features examples of how cities and statewide networks are effectively working together on behalf of children and youth in individual communities and simultaneously using their collective powers to increase afterschool funding and improve policy decisions that affect young people across the state. This guide also provides a list of ideas for how cities can partner with their respective statewide afterschool networks to impact state policy, leverage resources, sustain programs at the state and city levels, receive guidance and training to improve program quality, generate state and national visibility, and expand access to high-quality programs. Cities that have partnered with their statewide afterschool networks are appended.

Build a strong afterschool program that increases learning while incorporating standards! Research shows that participation in structured afterschool programs holds huge benefits for children’s academic and social development. But how can school principals create programs that help maximize student proficiency? This book holds the answers. Based on an AASA/Mott Foundation study, this concise yet comprehensive guidebook offers a step-by-step process to help principals and administrators build a successful and sustainable afterschool program. The author discusses how to integrate standards and incorporate a high-level curriculum and provides profiles of programs that have improved achievement, particularly for students who are at risk. School leaders will find checklists, planning worksheets, evaluation tools, and surveys, plus guidelines for: • Developing a parent and community base of support • Hiring staff and obtaining volunteers • Getting funding and grants • Collecting and evaluating program data This book will help school leaders identify the most effective ways to structure afterschool programs. The author shows how to avoid common problems and demonstrates through examples that, by working closely with staff and the community, it’s possible to raise student proficiency levels and cultivate academic success.

Afterschool programs provide myriad benefits to all who participate, but the lion's share of programs are geared toward younger children. According to a recent survey, 6.5 million children in the U.S. are in afterschool programs, and just 8 percent are in grades 9-12. However, there are 2.3 million high schoolers who would participate if programs were available. In spite of the autonomy that typically comes with age, teens still need guidance and adult supervision to help keep them safe, in school and on the path to success in life. Results of a study of high risk teens from an urban school district are presented, and strategies for reaching out to older teens who often have adult responsibilities are also provided. This issue brief highlights the following findings: (1) Teens need guidance to stay on the path to productive adulthood; (2) Teens need additional help preparing for college and the workforce; and (3) Reaching out to teens can be a challenge. This report concludes by saying that perhaps the most important aspect of creating an afterschool program for older teens is simply listening to the young people they aim to serve. (Includes 12 endnotes.).

Closing the gap between scientific research on afterschool programming and the practices occurring in these settings is the goal of this volume. Both sources of knowledge are critical to developing the afterschool workforce’s ability to provide high-quality programming. On the one hand, this means afterschool staff should not work with young people until they have been adequately prepared—which includes training in evidence-based practices—and properly supervised. On the other hand, it requires that scientists understand and study those aspects of afterschool programming most relevant to the needs of practitioners. This volume includes perspectives from the afterschool workforce, scientists who discuss the current research, and the practitioners who know how afterschool programs operate in practice. This is the 144th volume of New Directions for Youth Development, the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series dedicated to bringing together everyone concerned with helping young people, including scholars, practitioners, and people from different disciplines and professions.

The National League of Cities (NLC), through its Institute for Youth, Education and Families, produced this report to help city leaders, senior municipal staff and their local partners answer those questions as they work to strengthen and coordinate services for youth and families, particularly for those cities building comprehensive afterschool systems. It provides a thorough review of what it takes to build effective management information systems for youth services, including a detailed "how to" guide for preparing for and implementing an afterschool MIS (management information system) and strategies for addressing privacy and security concerns in collaboration with schools and families. The report concludes with a comparative analysis of six leading commercial MIS vendors and a cost calculator to help communities explore the expense of differently configured systems. In addition, city leaders and staff will find a growing library of resources on the NLC website to speed their progress, including sample requests for proposals, data sharing agreements, system architectures, and other useful tools to borrow and adapt. Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPS) are appended. (Contains 5 charts and 6 footnotes.) [For "Building Management Information Systems to Coordinate Citywide Afterschool Programs: A Toolkit for Cities. Executive Summary," see ED537006.].