Poster #85 - Expanding After School Impact: Longitudinal Evaluation of Afterschool Intervention in West Texas

• In Event: Saturday Poster Luncheon

Abstract

BackgroundAfterschool programs funded through the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) represent a major federal investment aimed at improving outcomes for students in high-poverty, low-performing schools (Scroggins, 2025). Policymakers continue to seek rigorous, longitudinal evidence on how participation, especially dosage, interplays with academic and behavioral outcomes across diverse contexts, particularly in Title I schools in partnership with local community organizations and schools (Elder et al., 2021). This study examines the Afterschool Centers on Education (ACE) program in a large West Texas School district, leveraging a multi-year external research conducted through a research-practice partnership to examine the following:(1) How does ACE participation and dosage relate to attendance and discipline? (2) How does ACE participation and dosage relate to academic outcomes? (3) How does ACE participation and dosage relate to postsecondary enrollment? As a preliminary step, we use descriptives to summarize participation patterns, dosage, and differences in attendance, discipline, and academic outcomes across participating campuses and student groups using statewide, longitudinal data sourced from the University of Houston Education Research Center. Exploratory one-way ANOVA models tested whether outcomes differed across dosage tiers. This evaluation will use a staggered difference-in-differences design that leverages variation in ACE exposure across 10 campuses and 5 years to estimate changes in attendance, discipline, and academic outcomes.Additional analyses will examine heterogeneity by dosage and student subgroups. Because sustaining after school program participation among adolescents is a persistent challenge, subgroup analysis will pay special attention to how program dosage relates to secondary student’s engagement and persistence in ACE, and positive academic and behavior outcomes and postsecondary choices. Findings from prior years demonstrate consistent, policy-relevant patterns. Higher ACE engagement is associated with significantly lower absenteeism and fewer discipline incidents. Evidence also suggests that dosage matters, as students with sustained participation experience stronger academic and behavioral outcomes than those with minimal engagement. Preliminary ANOVA results for discipline showed that students in all ACE engagement groups had significantly more discipline incidents than students with no ACE participation, a pattern that reflects intentional referral of students with greater behavior needs into the program. However, Tukey post hoc results showed that students in the high-engagement group had significantly fewer discipline incidents than lower engagement groups. These results confirm that ACE services students with greater behavioral risk, and more sustained participation is associated with improved discipline outcomes. As we scale this study to include evidence from schools added in SY 2025-2026, preliminary findings provide a foundation for more sophisticated methods. This study contributes to national policy conversations by providing longitudinal evidence on how federally funded afterschool programs function across multiple campuses and years. Findings underscore the importance of sustained participation, targeted engagement of at-risk students, and consistent implementation quality across sites. The expansion to 10 campuses offers actionable insights for scaling programs while maintaining equity and effectiveness. The results have direct implications for federal and state policymakers, district leaders, and community-based organizations seeking to maximize the return on afterschool investments and improve outcomes for historically underserved student populations.

Authors

• Kristin Elizabeth Mansell, Texas Tech University
  Presenting Author

• Angela Crevar, Texas Tech University
  Non-Presenting Co-Author