Evaluation of the Out-of-School Time Initiative. Report on the First Year [electronic resource] / Christina A. Russell, Elizabeth A. Reisner and Lee M. Pearson.
The New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) launched services under its Out-of-School Time (OST) Programs for Youth in September 2005, with the award of funds to support more than 500 programs across New York City. Together, DYCD and the city's nonprofit community, wo...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
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2006.
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| Summary: | The New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) launched services under its Out-of-School Time (OST) Programs for Youth in September 2005, with the award of funds to support more than 500 programs across New York City. Together, DYCD and the city's nonprofit community, working closely with the New York City Department of Education (DOE), extended services to more than 51,000 youth across the city in the initiative's first year, making OST almost certainly the nation's largest afterschool program effort. The OST initiative is designed to address a broad range of developmental objectives for youth and to serve the needs of New York City's families and communities. This report of findings from the OST evaluation presents data on the first year of program implementation and early findings on participant engagement in OST programs and associated academic and social development outcomes. It describes a program effort that builds on DYCD's historic commitment to New York City's youth and on the work of nearly 200 community-based and other nonprofit organizations with lead roles in implementing the initiative. The evaluation sought to determine (1) the characteristics of programs supported by the OST initiative; (2) who participates in these programs and their attendance patterns; (3) the participants' patterns of social and emotional growth; (4) whether the programs affect participants' educational performance; and (5) whether the programs meet the city's needs for assistance to working parents youth during the out-of-school hours. Among the findings: 528 programs were launched. Across these 528 programs, DYCD awarded contracts that were intended to serve 15,462 youth in elementary-grades programs, 9,659 youth in middle-grades programs, 11,512 youth in high school programs, and 7,183 youth in programs serving multiple grade levels, for a total of 43,816 youth. Including all participants, 74 percent of Option I programs met or exceeded their enrollment targets. Nearly 98 percent offered homework help to their elementary-grades participants. 84 percent reported offering many visual arts and crafts activities. Many regularly offered free time for physical play and unstructured time for socializing (59 percent and 57 percent, respectively). Middle-grades programs offered a similar set of activities, although organized team sports and dance/movement activities were more common in the middle-grades programs (reported by 73 percent and 53 percent of program directors). Findings suggest that programs targeting high school youth were more specialized and tended to be more civic-oriented, reflecting the interests of high school youth. The following are appended: (1) Priority Middle School OST Programs; (2) Scales Used in Program Observation Analyses; (3) Details of Data Used in Analyses of Program Features; (4) Details of Data Used in Analyses of Participant Experiences; and (5) Details of Analyses of Associations between Participant Experiences and Program Features. (Contains 78 exhibits and 4 footnotes.) [This document was prepared for the Department of Youth and Community Development, New York, NY by Policy Studies Associates, Inc., Washington, DC.] |
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| Item Description: | Availability: Policy Studies Associates, Inc. 1718 Connecticut Avenue NW Suite 400, Washington, DC 20009. Tel: 202-939-9780; Fax: 202-939-5732; Web site: http://www.policystudies.com. Abstractor: ERIC. Educational level discussed: Elementary Secondary Education. |
| Physical Description: | 130 pages. |
| Type of Computer File or Data Note: | Numeric (Numerical/Quantitative Data) Text (Reports, Evaluative) |
| Preferred Citation of Described Materials Note: | Policy Studies Associates, Inc. |