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Program Description

Overview The After School Education and Safety Program was established by the California state legislature to fund partnerships with school districts, cities, counties, and community organizations to provide after school programs for students in grades K–9 throughout California. Administered by the California Department of Education (CDE), outcome-based requirements include: (1) improvement in student academic performance, (2) improvement in social behavior, and (3) improvement in attendance during the regular school day. (The After School Education and Safety Program was known as the After School Learning and Safe Neighborhoods Partnerships Program [ASLSNPP] at the time of the evaluation in this profile and therefore is referred to by that name.)
Start Date 1998
Scope state
Type after school (legislation passed for before school programs, but is on hold as of December 6, 2001)
Location urban, rural, and suburban
Setting public schools
Participants kindergarten through middle school students (including Grade 9)
Number of Sites/Grantees The California Department of Education made awards to 100 programs in the 1998–1999 school year and 57 in the 1999–2000 school year, including a total of 947 sites. Grants are ongoing, subject to meeting CDE required outcomes at the conclusion of 3-year periods. Local programs are required to provide matching funds of 50% of the award value.
Number Served approximately 30,000 in 2000
Components Each program must include the following:
  • The academic component must include homework help and tutoring in one or more of the following subject areas: language arts, math, history, social science, and science.
  • The enrichment and/or recreation component may include, but is not limited to, art, music, physical activity, health promotion, community service-learning, and other youth development activities based on student needs and interests.
Schools serving students where at least 50% are eligible for free and reduced-price lunches receive funding priority. After school programs operating within elementary schools must operate for a minimum of 3 hours a day and at least until 6pm on every regular school day. Middle schools can choose a flexible schedule that includes a minimum of 9 hours within 3 days per week so long as program goals are met. In current legislation, before school programs must operate for a minimum of 90 minutes daily. All staff members who directly supervise children must meet the minimum qualifications for instructional aides within the school district and site supervisors must be approved by the site school principals.
Funding Level $87.8 million in 2000. The per-pupil state allocation is $5 per day. Every grant requires community partners to provide matching funds equal to 50% of the grant.

Additional funding in the amount of $29.7 million has been passed in the state legislature, with funding currently frozen.
Funding Sources State of California and local school-community partnerships


Evaluation

Overview This statewide evaluation is a compilation of findings from selected locally evaluated programs. The California Department of Education requires both site-based and program-wide outcome assessments in the areas identified above.
Evaluator Department of Education, University of California at Irvine
Evaluations Profiled Evaluation of California’s After School Learning and Safe Neighborhoods Partnerships Program: 1999–2000: Preliminary Report
Evaluations Planned Ongoing at the program/site level by University of California, Irvine and University of California, Los Angeles (evaluators)
Report Availability University of California at Irvine, Department of Education. (2001). Evaluation of California’s After School Learning and Safe Neighborhoods Partnerships Program: 1999-2000 preliminary report. Irvine, CA: Author.


Contacts

Evaluation John Malloy, Consultant/Evaluator
Pat Rainey, Interim Administrator
After School Learning and Safe Neighborhoods Partnerships Program
California Department of Education
721 Capitol Mall
P.O. Box 944272
Sacramento, CA 94244
Tel: 916-657-5130
Program Dr. Andria J. Fletcher
California Department of Education/Foundation Consortium Partnership
Center for Collaborative Solutions, Statewide Intermediary
1329 Howe Avenue, Suite 200
Sacramento, CA 95825-3363
Tel: 916-428-6600

Lindsay Callahan
Foundation Consortium
2295 Gateway Oaks Drive
Suite 100
Sacramento, CA 95833
Tel: 916-646-3646
Profile Updated December 7, 2001

Evaluation: Evaluation of California’s After School Learning and Safe Neighborhood Partnership Program (ASLSNPP): 1999–2000: Preliminary Report



Evaluation Description

Evaluation Purpose To measure progress in meeting program goals. In particular, evaluations looked for indicators of program impacts on achievement of academic performance standards, attendance, positive behavior changes, and school safety.
Evaluation Design Non-Experimental: The statewide evaluation is a compilation of data collected at selected programs throughout the state. While all localities operating ASLSNPP programs are required by law to collect outcomes data, this statewide evaluation summarizes results from only a select group of these locally evaluated programs. The local programs included are representative of the types of ASLSNPP programs statewide, both with respect to geographic distribution and urban/rural distribution. Additionally, the local educational agencies included in this evaluation were selected due to the high quality and comprehensiveness of the data available from them.
Data Collection Methods Secondary Source/Data Review: Evaluators reviewed the quantitative and qualitative data that all ASLSNPP are mandated to collect. These data include:
  • Student grade level
  • Stanford Achievement Test 9 total reading and total math scores
  • California content standard supplemental—English/language arts total and math total
  • Whether the student was promoted in the just-completed spring semester
  • Whether the student is an English learner (Limited English Proficient)
  • Number of days enrolled in school for the baseline and follow-up school year
  • Number of days absent during the baseline and follow-up school year
  • Number of days attended the after school program during the follow-up school year
  • Anecdotal evidence about changes in students’ behavior
  • Description of program staff (credentialed teachers, paid instructional aides, volunteers, Cal-Works employees, and volunteers), staff retention, and staff development activities
  • Description of the collaborative including program partners and how their contributions are reflected in program content
  • Whether program receives reimbursement for snacks from the USDA
  • How the program has changed from what was originally envisioned in the grant application
  • How the program has been integrated with the regular school programs and teachers

Surveys/Questionnaires:
All ASLSNPP programs conduct student surveys. Student surveys vary by program, but most ask questions about the students’ level of enjoyment of the program, their feelings as to the usefulness of the academic tutoring, and their feelings of safety in the program and at school.

Parent surveys were conducted by most of the programs and covered topics such as parents’ perceptions of their children’s academic performance behavior, motivation since program participation, and their feelings about their children’s safety in the program.
Data Collection Timeframe Data were collected during the 1999–2000 school year.


Findings:
Formative/Process Findings

Satisfaction Students look forward to programs and believe that programs are contributing positively to their homework completion, learning, school performance, and feelings of confidence, safety, and security.

Parents feel that programs are contributing substantially to their children’s academic performance, attendance, behavior, safety, and quality of after school time.


Summative/Outcome Findings

Academic Statewide data demonstrate that SAT-9 Reading scores of ASLSNPP participants increased more than scores of students statewide. For the ASLSNPP participants, the number who scored above the 25th percentile in 2000 was 48.4%. This reflects an absolute increase of 5.8 percentage points from 1999, versus a 3-percentage-point increase for elementary and middle school students in the statewide population.

The higher-dosage participants-those who attended for 150 days or more-showed the largest increases in SAT-9 Reading scores. The absolute increase in the percent of ASLSNPP students no longer scoring in the lowest quartile was 8.5 percentage points, a change from 45.3% to 53.8%, and an increase almost three times as large as found statewide among all students.

Among ASLSNPP participants, 54.4% scored above the 25th percentile on the SAT-9 Math test in 1999 and 58.5% in 2000. This reflects an increase of 4.1 percentage points in students above the lowest quartile.

ASLSNPP participants who were in the program for 3 months or longer increased in their SAT-9 Math scores more than students statewide. The increase among the higher dosage ASLSNPP students no longer scoring in the lowest quartile was 7.4 percentage points, a change from 56.7% to 64.1%. Within the statewide school population in the pertinent elementary and middle grades, the increase in students who scored above the 25th percentile between 1999 and 2000 was from 68.2% to 72.7%, an increase of 4.5 percentage points.

The regular school day attendance of students in the ASLSNPP increased between 1999 and 2000. Among ASLSNPP participants who were absent 5% or more days in 1999, the average increase in attendance was 5.6 days. Among those who were absent 10% or more days in 1999, the average increase in attendance was 11 days. For those absent 15% or more days in 1999, the average increase in attendance was 17 days.

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Published by Harvard Family Research Project