Building a Stronger After-School: How Researchers and Program Staff Can Translate Data Into Impact

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Over the past decade, there has been a surge in public investment in afterschool programming. However, with this recognition comes the need to assess impact. Under the right conditions, afterschool settings can be productive spaces for researchers to collaborate with practitioners. This session highlights how afterschool research can inform practice by highlighting three projects at different stages:

1) A long-running early literacy program with research/evaluation limited to internal capacities of the organization.

2) A high school internship-apprenticeship program with new federal funding, currently focused on setting the conditions necessary to implement a randomized-control-trial

3) A federally-funded middle school STEM program in its third year of an RCT reflecting on lessons learned implementing an RCT and how early findings changed practice.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Out-of-School Time

Chair

• Kathryn Brohawn, ExpandED Schools, Inc.

Papers

• Ready Readers: An Internal Evaluation of the Impacts of a Collaborative Teaching Model on Students' Early Literacy Skills - Lizzie Murchison, ExpandED Schools; Joel Nunez, ExpandED Schools; Kathryn Brohawn, ExpandED Schools, Inc.; Tarilyn Little, ExpandED Schools

• Early Lessons From an Evaluation of an After-School Apprenticeship Program for High School Students - Zitsi Mirakhur, University of Kentucky; Candace Brazier-Thurman, ExpandED Schools; James J. Kemple, New York University; John Sludden, New York University

• Design2Learn: Year 3 of a Randomized Controlled Trial of an After-School Science Program for Middle-Grade Students - Cheri Fancsali, Research Alliance for New York City Schools; Ben Schwab, Research Alliance for New York City Schools; Emma Banay, Expanded Schools

Discussant

• Bronwyn Bevan, University of Washington