When Schools Stay Open Late: 21st Century CCLC Grant

Summary of 21st Century Grant:
This program supports the creation of community learning centers that provide academic enrichment opportunities for children, particularly students who attend high-poverty and lowperforming schools. The program: helps students meet state and local student standards in core academic subjects, such as reading and math; offers students a broad array of enrichment activities that can complement their regular academic programs; and offers literacy and other educational services to the families of participating children.
SOURCE: http://www.ed.gov/programs/21stcclc/index.html


Below is an interesting article about the 21st Century Grant.

Printing note: This is a 130 page document about this federal grant program. I have included some of the abstract in the blog.

When Schools Stay Open Late: The National Evaluation of the 21st Century CCLC Program
http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/publications/pdfs/21stfinal.pdf

Highlights from Abstract

Background: The 21st Century Community Learning Centers program has supported after-school programs since 1998. Research on the effects of after-school programs has been inconclusive, leading to an ongoing debate about the effects of after-school programs.

Purpose: To examine the implementation of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers after-school program and assess its impacts on students. Earlier reports from this study presented findings based on two school years of data for middle school students and one school year of data for elementary school students. Key impact findings from the first report include no improvement in homework completion, limited effects on academic outcomes, no reduction in self-care, no improvements in safety and behavior, higher levels of parental involvement for the treatment group relative to the control group, and few effects on developmental outcomes. Key impact findings from the second report include higher levels of supervision by adults for treatment-group students relative to control-group students, lower levels of supervision by siblings for treatment-group students relative to control-group students, no reduction inself-care, few impacts on academic outcomes, improved feelings of safety after school for elementary students in the treatment group relative to students in the control group, mixed evidence on negative behavior for middle school students, some impacts on parents of elementary students, and few impacts on developmental outcomes. The purpose of the current report is to present impact analyses based on two years of follow-up data for elementary students.


-Dana Wilson, President of NENI
http://www.neni.us/