Ah, Politics! ... no surprise this appears in the Wash Times, created for
the Right to offset the "liberal" Wash Post ... and you can just see where
this story will go in the mainstream infotainment media (which includes
pretty much all mass media in the US today): "After School Programs Are
Centers for Drugs, Crime" ...
"Black and Hispanic students in after-school programs showed increased
effort in the classroom, reduced lateness for school, and increased math
grades. None of those impacts was evident for white students."
Now who is going to see this as a reason to SUPPORT such programs? And what
are we to conclude from all this mish-mash of "results"? ... that it's the
white students are doing the drugs and committing the violence while the
African-American and Latino/a students are trying to study math? ... that
smoking dope and learning to avoid bullies improves math scores?
Does this kind of research have any other USE than a political one? And I
don't mean this study, I mean this paradigm of "evaluation".
Likely policy conclusions:
De-fund after school centers. Limit them to drilling math skills. Don't let
"discipline problem" students attend.
Unlikely policy conclusions:
Spend more to improve safety. Upgrade instruction in language arts.
Segregate classes by gender. Fire some administrators.
Least likely:
Do some SERIOUS research to find out what is really being done right and
wrong in many of these centers. Compare the most and least successful
centers' arrangements, ethos, and student populations. Check some
commonsense hypotheses: schools are dumping problem students in these
programs; there are no attractive after-school programs for more
academically successful students to mix with those not doing as well,
resulting in a skewed unbalanced after-school population that increases
risks for student safety; programs have low expectations for academic
progress and just repeat the same methods and materials that have already
failed with most of these students ... etc.
Conservatives believe that desire is the enemy of truth ... and that is
nowhere more true than in the political uses of research.
JAY.
At 06:06 AM 2/26/2003 -0800, you wrote:
>After-school programs don't teach
>By George Archibald
>THE WASHINGTON TIMES
>
>More than a billion dollars a year of federal aid for after-school
>programs in 7,500 public schools nationwide has not helped most children
>academically, a federally funded study concluded.
>Children who attend after-school activities at public elementary and
>middle schools are more likely to encounter bullies, vandals, thieves and
>drug users than those who do not, said the study, conducted for the U.S.
>Education Department.
>"While after-school centers changed where and with whom students spent
>some of their after-school time and increased parental involvement, they
>had limited influence on academic performance, no influence on feelings of
>safety or on the number of 'latch-key' children; and some negative
>influences on behavior," said a report by Mathematica Policy Research Inc.
>of Princeton, N.J., and Decision Information Resources Inc. of Houston.
>Middle school participants were "more likely to report that they had sold
>drugs 'some' or 'a lot' and were somewhat more likely to report that they
>smoked marijuana 'some' or 'a lot' (though the incidence was low)," the
>report said.
>The report, titled "When Schools Stay Open Late: The National Evaluation
>of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program," is the result of
>a study throughout in the 2000-2001 school year at 96 centers in 48
>elementary school and middle school districts in all regions of the country.
>"The initial findings indicate that significant work remains to be done to
>develop after-school programs that improve children's academic, personal
>and social skills," said Mark Dynarski, senior fellow at Mathematica and
>research director for the study.
>Judy Y. Samelson, executive director of the Afterschool Alliance,
>criticized the report as too negative.
>"It is terribly disappointing that the report highlights only negative
>findings and that the Bush administration is using this study to justify a
>deep, indefensible cut in the federal after-school program," she said.
>The 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program started in 1998 with a
>$40 million congressional appropriation. Last year, with passage of
>President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" school-reform law, it was funded
>at $1 billion for fiscal year 2003, which ends Sept. 30.
>Mr. Bush has proposed fiscal year 2004 funding of $600 million with
>reforms to strengthen the academic focus of after-school programs.
>Key findings of the study include:
>•Grades and reading test scores of elementary students in most subjects
>were not higher than nonparticipants. On average, programs had no impact
>on whether students completed homework or assignments to teachers'
>satisfaction.
>•For middle school students, grades in math were slightly higher, but
>there was no difference in other subjects.
>•Black and Hispanic students in after-school programs showed increased
>effort in the classroom, reduced lateness for school, and increased math
>grades. "None of those impacts was evident for white students."
>•According to student questionnaires, participants were more likely than
>nonparticipants to "sell illegal drugs," "smoke marijuana," "smoke
>cigarettes," "break something on purpose," "punch or hit someone," "steal
>from a store" and "get arrested or detained by police."
>"For students with fewer behavior problems [in the baseline year], centers
>increased effort in the classroom and math and social-studies grades. None
>of these impacts [was] evident among students that had more disciplinary
>problems," the report said.
>"Participation also increased the extent to which female students were
>victimized, either by being 'picked on' after school or by having their
>property damaged. Among males, participation did not significantly affect
>either of these outcomes," the report said.
>The cost of the program at each center averaged $196,000, or $1,000 per
>student — a 16 percent spending increase, according to the study. Three of
>five center staff members were day-school teachers who were paid an
>additional $16 to $17 per hour for their after-school services.
Jay Lemke
Professor
University of Michigan
School of Education
610 East University
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Tel. 734-763-9276
Email. JayLemke@UMich.edu
Website. www.umich.edu/~jaylemke
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