Academic Effects of After-School Programs (continued)

The specific activities that children engage in after school are associated with where children are after school and with how well children do in school. Not surprisingly, reading after school is the activity most predictive of higher student achievement. Throughout elementary school, children in a nationally representative sample did more studying and reading at home than they did in programs (Hofferth & Jankuniene, 2001). On the other hand, several researchers have found that children watch far more television at home after school than they do at after-school programs. Time viewing television in numerous studies has been associated with lower reading achievement and more frequent behavior problems among children.

Posner and Vandell (1999) studied low-income and working-class urban children and found that those who attended after-school programs engaged in more nonsport extracurricular activities in third through fifth grade and more academic activities in third and fourth grades than nonprogram children. They then investigated the adjustment of fifth-grade children based on how they had spent their after-school time over a 3-year period. For the low-income African-American children in their sample, time doing nonsport extracurricular activities after school was associated with better teacher-reported emotional adjustment in school, time socializing was associated with better academic grades and work habits, and time in coached sports was associated with lower academic grades (Posner & Vandell, 1999). For the White children in their sample, time in unstructured activities outside was associated with lower report card grades, poorer work habits, and poorer teacher-reported emotional adjustment in school.

Conclusion

The research indicates that children from high-risk backgrounds have both the most to gain from after-school programs in terms of educational opportunity and the least access to after-school programs. Research findings also indicate that if educational benefits are the goal of after-school programs, then attention needs to be focused on the quality of programs and the activities that are offered. First, a positive emotional climate devoid of harsh, punitive, controlling adult supervision should increase attendance. Programs cannot benefit children who do not attend or resist participation. Second, the changing needs and interests of older elementary school children need to be considered in programming. Third, experts caution that the goal of improving children's school performance will not necessarily be attained by extending the school day with traditional classroom lessons and routines. Some research suggests that giving children activity choices, engaging them in enrichment activities, and supporting socialization with peers will pay academic dividends. Projects offer the potential to enhance children's learning (Alexander, 2000) as do activities such as music, art, theatre, computers, reading for pleasure, and writing for an audience (Hynes, O'Connor, & Chung, 2000; Vandell & Shumow, 1999), but the benefits of those approaches still need to be substantiated by research.

For More Information

Alexander, D. (2000). The learning that lies between play and academics in after-school programs [Online]. Wellesley, MA: National Institute on Out-of-School Time. Available: http://www.niost.org/activity.html.