Abstract
First-year evaluation findings from the University of California, Irvine Department of Education’s Certificate in After-School Education (CASE) program are reported in this paper. The goal of CASE is to promote positive youth development in diverse learners through education and training of the after-school workforce. CASE blends instruction across five, 10-week long courses with 70+ hours of fieldwork in local after-school programs (ASPs). CASE course and fieldwork enrollment, perceived understanding of course material, multicultural education, and civic interests and engagement were measured through student surveys. Students in CASE courses report higher levels of perceived course understanding (p < .01), civic responsibility (p < .01) and empowerment (p < .05) than students in the non-CASE courses. Students enrolled in CASE courses requiring fieldwork report greater perceived course understanding (p < .01) and academic engagement (p < .01) than CASE students without fieldwork. The findings suggest the program is achieving several of its early goals.
Highlights
A recent review of literature on out-of-school time highlights both the growing popularity of and need for after-school programs (ASPs) (Mahoney, Parente & Zigler, 2009)
While many students have been shown to benefit from ASPs, research suggests that low income and minority students who are at risk of academic failure may be especially likely to benefit from ASP participation
Participants include 174 students enrolled in one of five Certificate in After-School Education (CASE) courses offered during the spring quarter of 2009 (81% of total students enrolled in these courses) and 50 students enrolled the control course (93% of students enrolled in this course) that was offered through the Department of Education
Summary
A recent review of literature on out-of-school time highlights both the growing popularity of and need for after-school programs (ASPs) (Mahoney, Parente & Zigler, 2009). There is a trend toward increasing ASP participation among all income levels though the trend is especially pronounced among the lowest income levels (Harvard Research Project, 2006) With this growing trend, the findings that participation in ASPs can lead to positive social development (Mahoney, Larson, Eccles, & Lord, 2005; Posner & Vandell, 1994) as well as improved academic performance (Grossman, Price, Fellerath, Jucovy, Kotloff, Raley, et al 2002; Huang et al, 2000; Posner & Vandell, 1994) seems increasingly important. Research shows that the extent to which ASP participation facilitates positive development depends on the quality of the after-school program staff (Catalano, Berglund, Ryna, Lonczak & Hawkins, 1998; Durlak & Weissberg, 2007; Mahoney, Stattin & Lord, 2004; Pierce, Hahm & Vandell, 1999; Rosenthal & Vandell, 1996; Smith, Devaney, Akiva & Sugar, 2009). The most recent review of professional development literature suggests that teachers who are products of successful professional development tend to have a positive effect on student achievement (Yoon, Duncan, Lee, Scarloss & Shapley, 2007)
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