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Program Description

Overview The North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service (NC CES), a state member of the Federal Extension System/U.S. Department of Agriculture, provides training and technical assistance to school-age care (SAC) programs in North Carolina with the goal of increasing the availability and quality of the care for school-age youth.
Start Date 1987
Scope state
Type after school
Location urban, rural, and suburban
Setting public school, private school, community-based organization, religious institution, private facility, recreation center
Participants elementary through high school students
Number of Sites/Grantees 25–60 grantees (varies year to year)
Number Served 29,604 in 2001
Components CES provides training and technical assistance to school-age child care providers whose programs are supported by CES. CES personnel conduct site visits to the participating programs, holding monthly meetings and formal trainings as well as providing curriculum kits, supplies, and equipment.
Funding Level not available
Funding Sources federal and North Carolina state and county funding, public and private grants, and user fees


Evaluation

Overview Included in this profile are two evaluations of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension-supported school-age child care programs. The first is the North Carolina portion of a 1994 national evaluation of 76 Extension-supported programs in 16 states, conducted as part of the federal Youth-at-Risk Initiative. The North Carolina evaluation focuses on the SAC programs supported by the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service and their impact on participating children. The second evaluation profiled here was done in 1998 and also looks at the benefits to North Carolina children participating in North Carolina Extension-supported SAC programs.
Evaluators 1994 Evaluation
Eddie L. Locklear, North Carolina State University

Dave Riley and Jill Steinberg, University of Wisconsin

Chris Todd, University of Illinois

Sharon Junge, University of California

Ina McClain, University of Missouri

1998 Evaluation
Eddie L. Locklear and R. David Mustian, North Carolina State University
Evaluations Profiled Preventing Problem Behaviors and Raising Academic Performance in North Carolina Children: The Impacts of School Age Child Care Supported by the University Extension Service (1994)

Extension-Supported School-Age Care Programs Benefit Youth (1998)
Evaluations Planned not available
Report Availability Locklear, E. L., Riley, D., Steinberg, J., Todd, C., Junge, S., & McClain, I. (1994). Preventing problem behaviors and raising academic performance in North Carolina children: The impacts of school age child care supported by the University extension service. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service.

Locklear, E. L., & Mustian, R.D. (1998). Extension-supported school-age care programs benefit youth. Journal of Extension 36(3). Available at www.joe.org/joe/1998june/rb4.html.


Contacts

Evaluation Eddie L. Locklear, Ed.D.
Department Extension Leader
North Carolina State University
Box 7606
Raleigh, NC 27695
Tel: 919-515-8488
Fax: 919-515-7812
Email: eddie_locklear@ncsu.edu

R. David Mustian, Ph.D.
Extension Program Evaluation Leader
North Carolina State University
Box 7607
Raleigh, NC 27695
Tel: 919-515-2380
Email: david_mustian@ncsu.edu
Program Eddie L. Locklear, Ed.D.
Department Extension Leader
North Carolina State University
Box 7606
Raleigh, NC 27695
Tel: 919-515-8488
Fax: 919-515-7812
Email: eddie_locklear@ncsu.edu
Profile Updated June 4, 2002

Evaluation 1: Preventing Problem Behaviors and Raising Academic Performance in North Carolina Children: The Impacts of School Age Child Care Programs Supported by the University Extension Service


Evaluation Description

Evaluation Purpose To determine if school-age care programs supported by the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service are providing positive benefits to participating children, especially in the areas of increasing prosocial behaviors, decreasing problem behaviors, and raising academic performance.
Evaluation Design Non-Experimental: Five Extension-supported programs in North Carolina were studied to assess the impact of the program on participants—181 children aged 5–12. The communities in which these five sites were located were selected by NC CES because they were seen as particularly likely to benefit from the programs. These five sites were among the 76 sites included in the federally funded Youth-at-Risk initiative that looked nationwide at the impacts of Extension-supported SAC programs. The results reported here only cover the North Carolina programs even though the original evaluation was national.
Data Collection Methods Surveys/Questionnaires: “Key informant” surveys were administered to SAC lead teachers, classroom teachers of the 181 participating children, and school principals at the participating children's schools. All respondents were asked about changes they had observed in students that they could say were specifically a result of participation in the SAC program. Survey response rates were 100% for SAC teachers, 72% for classroom teachers, and 60% for principals, of whom there were only three. While many questions were common to all three surveys, some questions were asked only of those respondent groups in a position to answer accurately. Each survey respondent reported on multiple children.
Data Collection Timeframe Data were conducted during the fall of 1992.


Findings:
Formative/Process Findings

Costs/Revenues According to teachers' estimates the SAC program prevented 24% of the children from having to repeat a grade. Assuming a cost of $3,000 per year per child of education, the SAC program saved the school district $50,000 by preventing 18 children from repeating a grade.
Recruitment/Participation School principals, classroom teachers, and SAC-lead teachers all rated the children on their academic and social skills at the outset of the 1992–1993 school year. Due to their different perspectives, they often had different assessments of the children's skill levels. According to the school principals who responded to the survey, an average of 28% of the SAC participating children were below grade level in academic skills and 30% were below average in social skills at the beginning of the school year. In contrast, the classroom teachers and the SAC-lead teachers estimated that 12% of participating students were behind academically and 11% and 10% of students were behind socially according to classroom teachers and SAC teachers, respectively.
Staffing/Training NC CES staff met with each of the five programs at least eight times and sometimes as many as fifty times throughout the previous year. At these times, NC CES staff held meetings and formal trainings, providing curriculum kits, supplies, and equipment.

SAC staff reported that they clearly gained from the training and consultation provided by the Extension agents.


Summative/Outcome Findings

Academic Thirty-three percent of the children had better grades by the end of the year of SAC participation.

According to classroom teachers, 47% of SAC program children had developed a recreational interesting in reading, 27% had improved their school attendance, and 44% were turning in more or better quality homework.

Both classroom teachers and school principals gave their opinions as to how much a role the SAC program had played in allowing children to advance to the next grade level and avoid special education designation; as before, their perspectives were different. Classroom teachers reported that for 24% of the SAC participants, the program had allowed them to avoid being held back a grade or being placed in special education. Principals reported that for only 6% of the children was the program the reason that they had not been held back in grade and for none of the children the reason that they were not placed in special education.
Community Development All principals reported a decrease in the amount of vandalism in and around the school that they attribute to the SAC program.
Youth Development All three groups of respondents—classroom teachers, SAC teachers, and school principals—reported that the SAC programs were having clear, positive effects on the students.

SAC providers and classroom teachers reported that many shy children had become more outgoing as a result of the SAC program; providers estimated this to be 14% of children and teachers, 44% of children.

Both SAC providers and classroom teachers perceived the SAC program to be providing opportunities for rejected children to learn how to make friends. SAC providers saw this type of positive impact on 8% of the children and teachers on 37% of participating children.

Thirty-three percent of the children according to SAC staff, 45% of the children according to classroom teachers, and 32% of the children according to principals cooperated better with adults and were more respectful of authority as a result of SAC participation.

SAC providers reported that 11% of the children had learned to take a leadership role in the operation of the SAC program through the course of the year.

According to SAC providers and classroom teachers, many children developed new interests because of their participation in a SAC program; teachers estimate 49% of children developed new interests while providers estimate that 44% of children did so.

Teachers, SAC providers, and principals agree that children in SAC programs demonstrated fewer behavioral problems after participating in SAC with principals and teachers reporting that 27% and 33%, respectively, of children were misbehaving less frequently. SAC providers estimated that 9% of children were showing fewer behavioral problems.

According to teachers, 40% of SAC program participants have learned through the program how to handle conflicts nonviolently; principals saw this improvement in 14% of the children and SAC providers in 9%.

Evaluation 2: Extension-Supported School-Age Care Programs Benefit Youth


Evaluation Description

Evaluation Purpose To determine if NC CES-supported SAC programs provided benefits to school-age children.
Evaluation Design Quasi-Experimental: Students in the 4-H school-age care program (SAC) at a K–8 public school comprised the treatment group. These students were matched with students from the same school who did not participate in the SAC program (comparison group). The comparison group had similar demographic and performance features to treatment group. Originally treatment and comparison groups were recruited from two other schools, a K–2 and a middle school, but as data were incomplete, these two schools were not included in the final analysis.
Data Collection Methods Secondary Source/Data Review: Data on academic performance, attendance, and tardiness about students in both the treatment and comparison groups were provided by the school principal from the students' records. These data were only available for the first and third periods of the year (nine weeks per period, four periods per school year), and the principal provided data about more students in the treatment group than in the comparison group.

Surveys/Questionnaires: Structured pre- and post-questionnaires, which made use of a 10-point scale, were administered to SAC providers, teachers, parents, and the principal regarding the experimental and comparison group students. The questionnaires covered the topics of student attitudes toward school, learning behaviors, and character education, where character education is defined as decision-making skills, leadership skills, citizenship, responsibility, community service, and other behaviors which reflect the character of children.
Data Collection Timeframe Data were collected between November 1996 and May 1997.


Findings:
Summative/Outcome Findings

Academic Generally, the program participants had higher academic scores, more regular school attendance, and lower rates of tardiness than the students in the comparison group.
Youth Development Parents of participants in the SAC program perceived mainly positive, but nonstatistically significant changes in their children from the beginning of the school year when the pre-surveys were administered to the end of the school year when the post-surveys were administered. This included increases in “talks about what the student is learning in school,” “cooperates with parents,” “asks to participate,” “participates on teams and in the neighborhood,” “does homework on own,” “takes responsibility,” and “shows good judgment,” while there were decreases in such items as “expresses anger by hitting,” “gets into trouble,” and “associates with people with negative behavior.” Parents in the comparison group tended to give higher ratings at the beginning of the school year than at the end, possibly reflecting an overstatement of behaviors at the point of first data collection.

Teachers of participants reported similar results to parents of participants. Those changes that were significant include “handling anger by talking” and “doing homework on their own”—the same significant changes reported by principals of program participants from the beginning to the end of the school year.

SAC providers reported the highest number of significant changes in participating youth. Significant improvements were observed by SAC providers in the areas of: “talk about what child is learning in school,” “cooperates with you,” “shows high level of interest in learning,” “handles anger by talking,” “participates on team/neighborhood,” “associates with friends with negative behavior,” “develops interests in new topics,” “joins in group activities,” “shows responsibility,” and “shares with students.”

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Published by Harvard Family Research Project