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A Profile of the Evaluation of Hispanic After School Program
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Program Description
| Overview | The Hispanic After School Program (HASP) is designed to promote positive ethno-cultural identity, school adjustment, and self-concepts of Puerto Rican children in a semi-rural town in Massachusetts. |
| Start Date | circa 1979 |
| Scope | local |
| Type | after school |
| Location | rural |
| Setting | public school |
| Participants | kindergarten through elementary school (k–6) |
| Number of Sites/Grantees | two elementary schools |
| Number Served | 75 in 1979 |
| Components | HASP is based on a person-centered, primary preventive approach that emphasizes early identification and treatment of mental health issues among Latino youth. A community mental health center, which sponsors HASP, and the local public school system engage in cooperative mutual planning to identify and treat potentially at-risk children. It operates at the institutional level in that it attempts to impact teachers, the school environment, and the school’s social climate. The three basic expected behavioral outcomes are (1) acceptance by teachers and students of cultural uniqueness and differences, (2) Latino students’ active bilingual speech in the presence of teachers and other children, and (3) receptiveness of the school’s students and staff to cultural differences. The components designed to produce these outcomes include participation in Spanish-Puerto Rican arts, crafts, and singing; discussion of ethnicity, ethnicity-related challenges, morals, values, sex roles, and skin color; and role-modeling by Latino/a professionals. All of these services occur after school. |
| Funding Level | unknown |
| Funding Sources | unknown |
Evaluation
| Overview | The program’s implementation was coordinated with the evaluation process; that is, youth were randomly selected to either participate in the program or to be members of the control group, in order to allow for an experimental design. Both groups were followed up 3 years later to assess long-term program effects. |
| Evaluator(s) | Efrain Garza Fuentes, Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles John LeCapitaine, University of Wisconsin-River Falls |
| Evaluations Profiled | The Effects of a Primary Prevention Program on Hispanic Children |
| Evaluations Planned | none |
| Report Availability | Garza Fuentes, E., & LeCapitaine, J. E. (1990). The effects of a primary prevention program on Hispanic children. Education, 110(3), 298–303. |
Contacts
| Evaluation | Dr. John LeCapitaine Professor Department of Counseling and School Psychology College of Education and Professional Studies University of Wisconsin-River Falls 410 S. 3rd Street River Falls, WI 54022 Tel: 715-425-3399 Fax: 715-425-0622 Email: john.e.lecapitaine@uwrf.edu |
| Program | Dr. John LeCapitaine Professor Department of Counseling and School Psychology College of Education and Professional Studies University of Wisconsin-River Falls 410 S. 3rd Street River Falls, WI 54022 Tel: 715-425-3399 Fax: 715-425-0622 Email: john.e.lecapitaine@uwrf.edu |
| Profile Updated | November 18, 2004 |
Evaluation: The Effects of a Primary Prevention Program on Hispanic Children
Evaluation Description
| Evaluation Purpose | To determine the impact of the program on participants’ self-concept, cultural identity, and school adjustment. |
| Evaluation Design | Experimental: During the program’s first year, Puerto Rican students attending the two host elementary schools (kindergarten through sixth grade) who wanted to be in the program were randomly assigned to either the program group (attending HASP) or the control group (not attending HASP). The program group participated in HASP for an academic period of 1 year. Data were collected from participants and their school-day teachers. Data were collected for both program and control group youth at the beginning of the program year (pretest) and 3 years after the initial intervention to evaluate long-term effects (posttest). A total of 75 children participated in the study as part of either the program or control group. As 20 children could not be located at posttest, the actual evaluation sample consisted of 55 children, comprising a program group (n=30) and a control group (n=25). Analysis indicated that the groups did not significantly differ on the variables of age, grade, gender, academic performance, or parents’ employment status. Children with a history of chronic or severe psychiatric disorders or of moderate to severe mental retardation were excluded from the study. |
| Data Collection Methods | Test/Assessments: Three assessments were administered to the program and control groups at pretest and posttest: the Martinek-Zaichowsky Self-Concept Scale for Children (MZSCC) (Martinek & Zaichowsky, 1977), the Teacher Expectancy of Academic Performance Scale (TEAPS) (Gerard & Miller, 1975), and the Aggression, Mood, and Learning Disabilities Scale (AML) (Cowen, et al., 1973). The MZSCC is a nonverbal instrument designed to measure the global self-concept of both English- and non-English-speaking children in grades 1–8. To portray items nonverbally, youth respond to pictures that represent selected self-concept factors including popularity, intellectual and school status, physical appearance and attributes, happiness and satisfaction, anxiety, and behavior. The TEAPS assesses teachers’ expectations of students’ academic potential, as measured by teachers’ responses to a series of 7-point Likert response scales ranging from far below average to far above average. The AML is a quick screening device for the early identification of school maladaptation and is used by teachers to rate the frequency of occurrence of each of 11 behaviors on a 5-point scale ranging from seldom or never to all of the time. Items include the following behaviors: fighting, classroom disruption, restlessness, unhappiness, impulsivity, sickness, moodiness, and difficulties with learning. References Cowen, E., Dorr, D., Clarfield, S., Kreling, B., McWilliams, S. A., Pokracki, R., et al. (1973). The AML: A quick-screening device for early identification of school maladjustment. American Journal of Community Psychology, 1, 12–35. Gerard, H. B., & Miller, N. (1975). School desegregation: A long term study. New York: Plenum Press. Martinek, T. J., & Zaichowsky, L. D. (1977). The Martinek-Zaichowsky Self-Concept Scale for Children. Jacksonville, Illinois: Psychologists and Educators. |
| Data Collection Timeframe | Data were collected between 1979 and 1983. |
Findings:
Summative/Outcome Findings
| Academic | From pretest to posttest, the program group demonstrated a decrease in the mean number of maladaptive behaviors as measured by the AML scale whereas the control group manifested an increase. Analysis indicated a significant (p < .05) difference between the program and control groups’ posttest adjusted means. In particular, the program group made significant gains in improving their classroom behavior, including decreases in fighting, classroom disruption, restlessness, unhappiness, impulsivity, sickness, moodiness, and difficulties with learning. There were no significant gains on the other three behaviors in the scale. |
| Youth Development | Although both groups demonstrated increased mean global self-concept scores as measured by the MZSCC, the program group made significantly greater gains in self-concept than the control group (p < .05). Specifically, the program group manifested improved self-perceptions in the following areas: academic status, physical attributes, happiness, anxiety, and popularity. No results related to program outcomes were available for TEAPS. |