The Harvard Family Research Project separated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to become the Global Family Research Project as of January 1, 2017. It is no longer affiliated with Harvard University.
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Coaching for Quality
Sarah Jonas describes the Children's Aid Society's model of site-based coaching for quality after school programming and the supports they provide to build the capacity of their coaches.
Who is the Afterschool Workforce?
Beth Miller, senior research advisor to the National Institute for Out-of-School Time (NIOST), and Ellen Gannett, codirector of NIOST, discuss the characteristics of the after school workforce.
Staff Characteristics and Professional Development in Quality After School Programs
Denise Huang describes her work with the National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning to identify best practices for learning in after school programs, including characteristics of effective professional development.
Theory of Action in Practice
Claudia Weisburd and Tamara Sniad from Foundations, Inc. describe the use of a theory of change and a theory of action to help address questions about how to develop and evaluate professional development for after school staff.
Building an Evaluation Tool Kit for Professional Development
Jennifer Buher-Kane, Nancy Peter, and Susan Kinnevy of the Center for Research on Youth and Social Policy at the University of Pennsylvania share their experience of creating a tool kit designed specifically for those who provide professional development to out-of-school time program staff.
New & Noteworthy: Expanded Web Only Version
This web only version of the New & Noteworthy section features an expanded annotated list of papers, organizations, initiatives, and other resources related to the issue's theme of Professional Development.
What Are Kids Getting Into These Days? Demographic Differences in Youth Out-of-School Time Participation
This research brief examines demographic differences in youth's OST participation rates. It first provides information on current demographic differences in OST participation rates, and then looks at whether there is any evidence that such differences have changed in recent years. The brief concludes with implications for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers.
Free. Available online only.
Focus on Families! How to Build and Support Family-Centered Practices in After School
This comprehensive, easy-to-read guide to understanding how to engage families in after school programs is a critical resource for after school providers looking to create or expand an existing family engagement program. It offers a research base for why family engagement matters, concrete program strategies for engaging families, case studies of promising family engagement efforts, and an evaluation tool for improving family engagement practices.
Free. 48 Pages.
Harnessing Technology in Out-of-School Time Settings
This Snapshot reviews the role of technology in OST programs, highlighting the evaluation methods and findings about implementation and youth outcomes.
Free. 8 Pages.
Exploring Quality Standards for Middle School After School Programs: What We Know and What We Need to Know Summit
This summit, made possible through a grant from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, brought together after school staff, administrators, researchers, and funders to discuss how quality assessment looks and feels different for after school programs that serve middle school youth.
Free. Available online only.
American Youth Policy Forum
In this presentation, Engaging Adolescents in Out-of-School Time Programs: Learning What Works, Priscilla Little reported on the benefits of participation in out-of-school time activities, contextual predictors of youth participation in such activities, and strategies for improving recruitment and retention in out-of-school time programs. Remarks were presented at a session on engaging adolescents in out-of-school time programs at the American Youth Policy Forum in Washington, D.C., on October 7, 2005.
Free. Available online only.
After School for Cindy: Family, School, and Community Roles in Out-of-School Time Teaching Case
Second grade teacher Nikki believes that participation in a formal after school program would help her student Cindy academically at school. However, Cindy's single working mother Marla prefers to keep Cindy with her in the afternoons after her numerous struggles with securing quality affordable care in the community. What are the roles of family, school, and community in promoting children's learning and development in out-of-school time?
Free. Available online only.
After School Evaluation Symposium
This 2-day meeting brought together the perspectives of diverse stakeholders to inspire new ideas and foster stronger links between research, practice, and policy. Participants discussed issues of access, quality, professional development, the role of evaluation research, and systems-building efforts.
Free. Available online only.
Studying Contextual Predictors of Participation in Out-of-School Time Activities
Describing a new study by HFRP, Holly Kreider illustrates how research and data can illuminate and facilitate links between complementary learning contexts.
New & Noteworthy
The New & Noteworthy section features an annotated list of papers, organizations, and initiatives related to the issue
Increasing the Bottom Line by Supporting Families
Lynn Mitchell, from Corporate Voices for Working Families, describes how businesses can promote policies and practices that support working families, using partnerships between private and public sectors.
Seattle School District's Community Alignment Initiative
Sara Tenney-Espinosa, of the Seattle School District, describes the evaluation goals and early findings from a collaboration between the district and local after school providers.
Beyond the Classroom: Complementary Learning to Improve Achievement Outcomes
Harvard Family Research Project introduces complementary learning as a concept for improving learning outcomes without relying solely on school-based reform.
Project HOPE: Working Across Multiple Contexts to Support At-Risk Students
In this article, Barbara Jentleson and Helen Westmoreland, from Duke University, highlight the mechanism of connecting complementary-learning contexts through staffing patterns and practices.
Technology Goes Home: Connecting Families, Communities, and Schools
Kelly Faughnan from HFRP describes a program that connects families and schools in the Boston area through the mechanism of technology.
Engaging Families in Out-of-School Time Programs
A group of researchers illlustrate how the practice of family engagement can link the out-of-school time, school, and home contexts.
Participation in Youth Programs: Enrollment, Attendance, and Engagement
This is a special issue of New Directions for Youth Development journal edited by Heather B. Weiss, Priscilla M. D. Little, and Suzanne Bouffard, Vol. 2005, No. 105, Spring 2005. This issue unpacks the construct of participation in out-of-school time programming, posing a three-part equation: participation = enrollment + attendance + engagement.
Finding the Right Hook: Strategies for Attracting and Sustaining Participation in After-School Programs
This article offers promising recruitment and retention strategies to school administrators seeking to boost participation rates in their school-based after school programs.
Selection Into Out-of-School Time Activities: The Role of Family Contexts Within and Across Neighborhood
This poster examined disadvantage at the family and neighborhood level and their associations with participation in out-of-school time activities. Specifically, the authors demonstrate that neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) characteristics (i.e., income, education, and employment) mediate the association between family income, parent education, and ethnicity and children's participation in a variety of activities outside of school. Family income and parent education, for example, are positively associated with an increased probability of youth participating in before- and after-school programs, community programs, and community center activities, but this increased probability is explained entirely by the fact that children in higher income and more educated families live in higher SES neighborhoods. Poster session submitted to Society for Research on Adolescence 2006 Bienniel Meeting, San Francisco, CA.
Engaging Adolescents in Out-of-School Time Programs: Learning What Works
This article examines both the incentives and barriers that affect adolescents' participation in out-of-school time programs.