Education Week - April 15, 2015 - 8

After-School Programs Targeted by Lawmakers, Critics
Conflict rekindles
research debates
By Kathryn Baron
Brent Cummings' goal for the 400
low-income, at-risk students in the
after-school programs he directs
in Walla Walla, Wash., is to kindle
their interest in learning with the
same spark that lit his imagination
years ago, when his high school
chemistry teacher kicked off a unit
on the periodic table of elements by
filling a balloon with pure oxygen
and igniting it.
Now, the programs in Walla Walla
and at more than 11,000 other
schools and community centers
across the country are in limbo
because of a congressional tussle
over federal funding for after-school
programs. The budget talks have
reopened a decade-old debate on
whether research shows any academic
benefits for students enrolled
in the programs.
At issue is the $1.15 billion 21st
Century Community Learning Centers,
or cclc, grant program, the
largest source of federal after-school
funding.
In his initial bill to reauthorize
the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act, Sen. Lamar Alexander,
R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate
education committee, called for consolidating
cclc and other nonacademic
programs into a single block
grant. His proposal was carried over
into the new bipartisan version of
the reauthorization bill released on
April 7. However, cclc supporters
said several senators are planning
to offer a bipartisan amendment to
restore the program when the committee
takes up the bill.
Opinions Differ
But the suggestion to eliminate
cclc has created an opening for critics
and a rallying cry for advocates.
Mark Dynarski was part of a team
at the Princeton, N.J.-based Mathematica
Policy Research that evaluated
the cclc program more than
a decade ago. In a paper published
last month by the Brown Center on
Education Policy at the Brookings
Institution, Mr. Dynarski, now a
senior fellow at center, said neither
Mathematica's studies nor any national
studies since have proven that
after-school programs improve student
outcomes.
He wondered why the federal
government continues to spend
money on a program that he said is
not meeting its goals.
"When do you decide that this
evidence is sufficient to actually
bring a program to a head or to
change it in some ways that make
it different?" Mr. Dynarski told
Education Week.
Other researchers dismissed his
comments and rebutted the Mathematica
studies, arguing that they're
out of date and flawed because the
program was too new to be appropriately
assessed at the time.
"One of the first rules of evaluation
is that you would not want to
use the initial rollout of a program
to do a high-stakes evaluation," said
Deborah Vandell, the dean of the
school of education at the University
of California, Irvine. "The 21st
Century programs today are not
the same programs that they were
15 years ago. The research data are
unequivocal about the role of organized
after-school programs."
Her own research and a separate
analysis of other recent studies,
known as a meta-analysis, found
that students who "regularly attended
high-quality programs demonstrated
significant gains in standardized
mathematics-test scores as
well as self-reported work habits,"
such as improved attendance.
Other Findings
In Walla Walla, an independent
evaluation found students who attended
cclc-funded after-school programs
for at least 30 days did better
than similar students at the same
schools who didn't attend them.
At one middle school, 80 percent
of students in the program
earned a C or better in science,
8 | EDUCATION WEEK | April 15, 2015 | www.edweek.org
compared with 48 percent of those
who didn't take part. In math,
the breakdown was similar: 70
percent of participating students
and 48 percent of nonparticipating
students earned a C or better.
The after-school students also had
a slight edge in reading.
A series of statewide evaluations
by the Washington-based American
Institutes for Research offers further
support. In Texas, for example,
the air found that high school students
who participated in afterschool
programs for at least 60
days were 97 percent more likely
to be promoted to the next grade
compared with similar, nonparticipating
students.
Mr. Dynarski discounts such evaluations,
arguing that some local success
stories don't trump lackluster
national results. But his assertion
that even federal education data
collected from all of the programs
found that most had missed their
performance targets drew a rebuttal
from the U.S. Department of
Education.
"More recent data reported by
states with 21st Century Community
Learning Center grants show
that students who participated in
after-school programs for at least
30 days each year had better school
attendance, saw fewer disciplinary
incidents, and were more likely to
be promoted to the next grade," the
Education Department's press secretary,
Dorie Nolt, said in an email.
Any effort to shift the purpose of
cclc funds faces formidable dissent
from after-school advocates.
Former California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, who launched a
successful ballot initiative for an
after-school grant program in his
state, led a call to action last month
at a conference at the University of
Southern California.
"That's why we're here," said Mr.
Schwarzenegger, "to tell Washington
as one voice, 'Don't terminate afterschool
programs.' "
Coverage of more and better learning
time in schools is supported by a grant
from the Ford Foundation. Education
Week retains sole editorial control over
the content of this coverage.
The TIME AND LEARNING blog tracks
news and trends on this issue.
www.edweek.org/go/timeandlearning
TOP: Students practice BMX
riding in an after-school
program in Walla Walla, Wash.
After-school programs in
Walla Walla and across the
country are in limbo because
of a disagreement in
Congress over federal
funding for them.
BOTTOM LEFT: Tutor Christian
Vega plays outdoors with 2nd
and 3rd graders in an
elementary after-school
program in Walla Walla.
BOTTOM RIGHT: At another
after-school program in the
district, program director
Brent Cummings, far left,
works with 8th grader Edlyn
Carvajal to demonstrate a
science concept for middle
school students.
Photos by Molly Van Wagner for Education Week
http://www.edweek.org/go/timeandlearning http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - April 15, 2015

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