Supporting Success: Why and How to Improve Quality in After-School Programs

This report examines the program improvement strategies, step-by-step, that allowed The James Irvine Foundation's CORAL initiative to achieve the levels of quality needed to boost the academic success of participating students. And, it makes specific policy and funding suggestions for improving program performance. Communities Organizing Resources to Advance Learning (CORAL) is an eight-year, $58 million after-school initiative to improve educational achievement in low-performing schools in five California cities

After-School Toolkit: Tips, Techniques and Templates for Improving Program Quality

This toolkit offers program managers a practical, hands-on guide for implementing quality programming in the after-school hours. The kit includes the tools and techniques that increased the quality of literacy programming and helped improve student reading gains in the Communities Organizing Resources to Advance Learning (CORAL) initiative of The James Irvine Foundation. CORAL is an eight-year, $58 million after-school initiative aimed at improving education achievement in low-performing schools in five California cities. In addition to strategies, process and instructions, this toolkit offers a series of tools program staff can use to build the quality of their after-school program

Dual Language and ENL Comprehension: A First Grade Study for Students at Risk for Delayed English Language Development

This research began by asking how dual language programming impacts English comprehension for ENL students. Research was conducted within one first grade dual language cohort with five bilingual students. The data was collected by interviewing teachers and students, utilizing historical comprehension data, observing read alouds, and assessing student comprehension. Findings revealed that comprehension in a participant’s first language was positively related to English comprehension. However, individual student differences impacted the extent of the correlation. Furthermore, dual language teachers implemented common instructional practices to scaffold ENL student comprehension. Therefore, the data implied that native language instruction is integral, student backgrounds and differences need to be analyzed, and dual language educators need adequate professional development to best aid ENL comprehension

Turning engineers into reflective university teachers

Increasing attention to quality and innovation in Higher Education (HE) is enhancing the pedagogic knowledge of faculty members and thereby encouraging the academic success of their students. This aim requires, from the institution and teachers, a greater degree of involvement than was previously the case. This is certainly borne out by experience in Portuguese universities. The growing concern of engineers with issues of pedagogy and academic success marks a sea change in the traditional conceptions of teaching and learning in Higher Education. There are, of course, indications that many academics are resistant to change. Our research indicates a tradition among Portuguese and Scottish academics to incline their effort toward research with a resultant decline in interest and effort on teaching. The present paper presents a meta-analysis of research conducted at the University of Aveiro (Portugal) and the University of Strathclyde (United Kingdom) between 2000 and 2004 involving academics who taught first-year introductory Programming courses. The purpose of our study was to promote reflection and research on teaching based issues as a strategy toward improved student learning. The findings of the study raised a number of salient issues for discussion and consideration. In this paper, we present some of these issues, aiming to explore the impact that the findings may have on teachers' attitudes towards teaching and students' learning in introductory programming courses

Computational Thinking Integration into Middle Grades Science Classrooms: Strategies for Meeting the Challenges

This paper reports findings from the efforts of a university-based research team as they worked with middle school educators within formal school structures to infuse computer science principles and computational thinking practices. Despite the need to integrate these skills within regular classroom practices to allow all students the opportunity to learn these essential 21st Century skills, prior practice has been to offer these learning experiences outside of mainstream curricula where only a subset of students have access. We have sought to leverage elements of the research-practice partnership framework to achieve our project objectives of integrating computer science and computational thinking within middle science classrooms. Utilizing a qualitative approach to inquiry, we present narratives from three case schools, report on themes across work sites, and share recommendations to guide other practitioners and researchers who are looking to engage in technology-related initiatives to impact the lives of middle grades students

What Matters, What Works: Advancing Achievement After School

This brief provides highlights from "Advancing Achievement: Findings from an Independent Evaluation of a Major After-School Initiative." The brief underscores the potential of after-school programs in the ongoing drive to advance children's academic achievement. It shines a light on some of the issues that matter most for programs striving to promote academic success -- namely, program quality and youth engagement. The brief also suggests what works by linking these program attributes to academic benefits. Like the report on which it is based, the brief draws lessons from the Communities Organizing Resources to Advance Learning (CORAL) initiative of The James Irvine Foundation

Models of Inquiry-based Science Outreach to Urban Schools

NOTE: This is a large file, 15.5mb in size! A primary obstacle to urban precollege geoscience education is limited access to inquiry-based geoscience experiences that are engaging and relevant to students' lives. Opportunities are reduced by the common misconception that the geosciences are less relevant to urban audiences and by the financial limitations of many urban school districts. This paper describes three primary obstacles to improving urban geoscience education and discusses two outreach programs developed by the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) that have been offered to urban elementary school classrooms in central New York. Educational levels: Graduate or professional

Launching Literacy in After-School Programs: Early Lessons from the CORAL Initiative

The James Irvine Foundation launched the Communities Organizing Resources to Advance Learning (CORAL) initiative in 1999 with the goal of improving the academic achievement of children in the lowest-performing schools in five California cities. In 2004, CORAL adopted a more targeted approach toward reaching this goal by integrating a regular schedule of literacy instruction into its after-school programs. This interim report, based on research conducted between Fall 2004 and Summer 2005, documents CORALs progress toward implementing high-quality and consistent literacy programming. The report presents early results in terms of youths positive reading gains and describes the program components that appear to have contributed to these gains. It also identifies challenges CORAL sites faced and successful strategies for addressing those challenges

Arts Corps Program Evaluation Report

Founded in 2000 on the principle that all young people -- not just those with resources -- should have access to quality arts learning opportunities, Arts Corps is now a leading nonprofit arts education organization in Seattle. Starting with just a few classes at six sites, Arts Corps now serves over 2,000 K-12th grade students a year at approximately 40 sites. Arts Corps places after-school classes and in-school residencies primarily at schools and community centers serving low-income youth who often have few other opportunities for arts learning. Programs cover the spectrum of arts disciplines from dance to visual arts to photography to music, and include popular classes such as Brazilian dance, theater, comic illustration, spoken word, sculpture and more. Programming is designed to foster artistic competencies and creative habits of mind such as imagination, healthy risk-taking, reflection, persistence and critical thinking. The program operates on a school year, with select workshops occurring in the summer months. Arts Corps has conducted program evaluation since inception and has refined its focus each year to better explore and describe the impacts of arts classes on students. This report represents Arts Corps' evaluation work during the 2011-2012 program year