What Is Extended Day?
What Are Extended Day Learning Opportunities?
Extended-day programs—also called “after-school programs”—are a significant opportunity to improve learning for students. However, they must do more than help children complete worksheets and play kick ball. To really make a positive difference in learning, after-school and summer programs must be engaging, comprehensive, and done in partnership with families and other key stakeholders in the community. In addition, extended-day programs should intentionally enhance learning opportunities for children and their families by:
- Helping students catch up. Many children need more individualized learning time beyond the school day and year, and they need help completing their homework.
- Engaging students in learning at higher levels. Many children need an accelerated set of learning opportunities to keep up. They need extra help and connections to real-world tasks and people in diverse settings to see first-hand how their education relates to their future. Assets to learning at higher levels can include the arts and music, service learning, computer training, learning about other cultures and languages, job shadowing, and college linkages.
- Encouraging greater family connections and involvement. Extended-day programs can be a good vehicle to link more families with their own children’s education—at home, in the schools, and in the community.
- Giving families opportunities to boost their own education levels. The education level of parents is strongly correlated with children’s readiness for school and the likelihood they will complete high school and go on to college. Comprehensive after-school programs should work to increase access to adult education, computer classes, beginning college, and technical college courses for parents.
- Strengthening the climate of a school and surrounding community. With the broad involvement of youth-serving groups, civic organizations, employers, arts and cultural organizations, faith-based alliances, and families in after-school and summer programs, the very expectations of a school-community relationship can be positively changed.
Resources
- Gaining a Voice in Afterschool
[PDF 86,738kb]
In this article, the author explains the benefits of after-school programs for English-langugae learners.
- After-School Action Kit [PDF 275,207kb]
A toolkit from the Afterschool Alliance that defines after-school programs and offers strategies on starting a program.
- After-School Programs: Expanding Access and Ensuring Quality [PDF 84,361kb]
This 8-page policy report by the Progressive Policy Institute examines the federal role in after-school, surveys current research, and offers recommendations to expand access and improve the quality of after-school programs.
- America's After-School Choice [PDF 223,082kb]
A report from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids which offers statistics on young people and what happens between 3PM and 6PM.
- Out-of-School Time and Civic Engagement [PDF 336,053kb]
This commentary describes how out-of-school time programs make ideal contexts for nurturing civic engagement, exploring the issue from the practice, research and policy perspectives.
- Do After-School Programs Help Students Succeed?
This article from the September 2003 Association of Supervision of Curriculum Development, “Educational Leadership” magazine examines the research studies conducted on after-school programs.
- Critical Hours: Afterschool Programs and Educational Success
The Nellie Mae Education Foundation released a report on how afterschool programs effect the academic achievement and overall development of middle school students.
- Complementary Learning to Close the Achievement Gap
This issue of the Evaluation Exchange introduces “complementary learning” -- the idea that narrowing the achievement gap requires solid and sustained investments in nonschool learning supports, such as early care and education, families, after-school programs, libraries, museums, and other community-based supports.
- After-School Overview
Compelling data compiled by the Afterschool Alliance highlight the need for after-school programs.
- After-School and Reading Achievement
This abstract summarizes a study which found, over time, children from low-income families who were enrolled in after-school programs and were reading at a higher level than their peers in other kinds of care after school.