The Daily Signal is published by the uber-conservative Heritage Foundation. I am on their mailing list. In yesterday’s report, it congratulated Trump for proposing to eliminate federal funding for after-school programs because they harm children. They hailed the defunding of 21st Century Community Learning Centers.
Based on a study published 10 years ago that found that participants in the programs showed no change in academic achievement, felt safer, but were involved in more incidents of negative behavior, the Daily Signal slammed the program. Maybe the kids were involved in more incidents of negative behavior than their peers who stayed home and watched television alone.
Surely it is a mistake to judge a program of after school activities by academic metrics, even if it was falsely sold as such.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What the study’s results suggest is that the children who were involved in these after-school programs didn’t score better on tests as a result of the program, and some kids had discipline and behavior problems. Might it be that the population of kids who participate in after-school programs are perhaps more likely to be from lower SES families, with no one home after school to watch them because they are working 2, 3, or more jobs to make ends meet, and that these sorts of out-of-school factors are more likely to contribute to poor academic achievement and behavior problems than after-school programs? That perhaps the test scores and behavior problems these kids would have demonstrated would have been even worse without the after-school programs?
This is nothing more than classic corporate ed reform cherry picking–the idea that education policy is being determined by this kind of dishonest, myopic “thinking” is just infuriating.
Mitchell. Your inferences are on the mark. Here is what a little poking around turned up.
First, here is the abstract for the study characterized as “rigorous research.”
“This article presents evidence from a national evaluation of the effects of 21st Century Community Learning Center afterschool programs.
The study was conducted in 12 school districts and 26 after-school centers, at which 2,308 elementary school students who were interested in attending a center were randomly assigned either to the treatment or control group.
The findings indicate that the programs affected the type of care and supervision students received after school, with parents less likely to be caring for their child and other adults more likely, but there was no statistically significant effect on the incidence of self-care. Students in the program reported feeling safer after school, but their academic outcomes were not affected and they had more incidents of negative behavior.” “When Elementary Schools Stay Open Late: Results from the National Evaluation of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program,” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis Vol. 29, No. 4 (December 2007), pp. 296–318
Notice the sample size. At the time that this study was done, there were over 5000 21st Century Learning Centers in operation. A study designed to offer a description of these programs can be found in the following link. The descriptive study shows there was not a clear definition of the components of “21st Learning Center” including who would be in charge of tracking attendance, who would staff the program and so on.
US Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, Policy and Program Studies Service, 21st Century Community Learning Centers Descriptive Study of Program Practices (Washington, DC, US Department of Education, 2010) https://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/after-school/21st-century-community-learning-centers.pdf
Finally, if you want to improve test scores in math and ELA the better path for “extended time learning” is a summer program focused on those subjects, and for elementary school students before grade 4. Multi-age after school programs, which may include activities other than math and ELA ,are less effective and for reasons discussed with some nuance in this review of multiple studies. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4714952/
When I was in grad school I HAD to take statistics. The most brilliant thing the professor said was that statistics can be manipulated to “show” whatever you want- that’s why the processes of acquiring the data was so important. We were taught to really read what the study covered or did not cover. Most folks don’t understand this, hence a “study” equals “fact’……….oh wait, maybe those are alternative facts……
I REFUSE to use UBER for ALL kinds of reasons but here is one!
http://www.salon.com/2017/01/29/uber-ceo-challenged-for-trump-connection-after-immigrant-ban/
Down with overspending to help kids when the parents are sideswiping.
What does “the parents are sideswiping” mean? Do you mean sidestepping as in sidestepping a problem, i.e., ignoring it?
Do you mean working?
In Newark, the after school options are few and far between. Many of our students are latch key children with parents working two jobs each. A Boys and Girls Club was recently razed to provide for charter school expansion. Another benefit of the after school programs is an opportunity for the children to eat a third meal.
So if I understand this .
The reformers and the Billionaires who back those efforts care about children’s education. But are not very concerned as to whether they eat .
Sounds about right.
Well, they don’t even care about the children’s actual education. Just their standardized test scores.
Oh, and about how much the corporate educrats can make selling tests, books, software and hardware, management companies for the charter schools, etc. Don’t forget that.
Food? After school programs? What are those? They don’t make any money for the educrats. They just cost money.
{{Sigh}}
http://retractionwatch.com/2017/03/15/lawsuit-threat-journal-forces-author-heavily-revise-education-paper/
Diane,
In order to support this program as noted “Surely it is a mistake to judge a program of after school activities by academic metrics, even if it was falsely sold as such.”
How should the program be judged and how should it be sold? Are there no studies that show the opposite to be true? The study is 10 years old. Student replies seemed to be basis for its failure…To support the program one needs to have anything more recent.
Jscheidell,
I have a chapter in “Reign of Error” with extensive research citations on the value of after school programs. Their purpose is not to raise test scores but to provide healthful alternatives to hanging out in the streets. Giving kids arts, crafts, athletics, other good options.
Would you prefer the kids on the street, idle?
My district ran an after school homework help center for ELLs, and I worked in this program for several years. This program helped to level the playing field for these recent arrivals whose parents generally spoke little to no English and had little formal education. This program helped to build students’ self esteem by enabling them to be accountable in a manner similar to the way American students were held accountable. While some homework was modified for beginners and intermediates, we enabled our advanced students to do most of the assignments as the mainstream students. We helped students with research and materials so these students could more fully participate in the mainstream instruction, and success breeds success. This was an inclusive approach that built in skills, and some level of guided independence necessary for future academic endeavors and growth.
By the way, after school programs also keep poor latchkey children safe. I guess there is no metric for that.
If I hear any more libertarian/Ayn Randian/far right wing bilge about how we must defund, nay eliminate, food stamps, after school programs, Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, I will vomit continuously for the next 10 years. The libertarian vampires abhor what they claim is the nanny state, handouts for moochers and leeches, you know, for “those” kids. It’s much more important to lower taxes on the rich which will, according to libertarian so called “logic,” spur innovation, investment and entrepreneurship and thereby increase revenues. Baloney on steroids: cutting taxes on the rich decreases revenue, increases the deficits and thus gives these budget ghouls the excuse to kill off social programs such as after school programs.
Joe,
Bottom line: these people are well fed and housed. They want to go back to the 1890s when the poor went to poorhouses and debtors prisons and died in the street. It is their own fault!
Joe, one of the most ironic things going is the fact that the uber-Randian Paul Ryan, who wants cut and/or privatize all of that, benefited from receiving Social Security survivor benefits after his father died, when Paul was still in high school. He was able to set aside this money and it helped him pay for college.
In other words, “I got mine, scr*w the rest of you.”
This is just more alternative news (fiction) based on alternate facts (lies).
A study in 2010 out of the University of Michigan reported:
“Students enrolled in afterschool programs display better attendance rates and are significantly more likely to graduate from school than their peers who are not.
Students in LA’s BEST afterschool program and the Youth in Quantum Opportunities afterschool program were 20% and 50% less likely to dropout than the average student in their district respectively (Hahn, 1994)” …
Quality afterschool programs like these require quality staff, effective curricula and community collaboration in order to succeed. Federal, state and local governments must develop policies to support and evaluate these programs to ensure their success. In order to prepare Detroit youth for graduation, employment and the skills to succeed, quality afterschool programs are almost certainly a necessity.”
https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/120364/Quarton_AfterschoolProgramsToIncreaseRetentionAndOutcomesInDetroitPublicSchools.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
The real reason for wanting to get rid of these programs is to free up that money to increase profits in the private sector education industry that is waging war against traditional, community-based, democratic, transparent, non-profit public education.
Lloyd,
For what it’s worth, I compiled extensive research on the value of after school programs for “Reign of Error.” There is no controversy, except at the Heritage Foundation, possibly its alt-right allies.
And from Sourcewatch:
Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a right-wing think tank. Its stated mission is to formulate and promote public policies based on the principles of “free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.”[1] It is widely considered one of the world’s most influential public policy research institutes. The Foundation wields considerable influence in Washington DC, and enjoyed particular prominence during the Reagan administration. Its initial funding was provided by Joseph Coors, of the Coors beer empire, and Richard Mellon Scaife, heir of the Mellon industrial and banking fortune. Its founders include Paul Weyrich and Mickey Edwards. The Foundation maintains strong ties with the London Institute of Economic Affairs and the Mont Pelerin Society. …
The Heritage Foundation has received funding from organizations with connections to the Koch brothers. In 2012, the Heritage Foundation received $650,000 from the Claude R. Lambe Foundation, which was one of the Koch Family Foundations before it closed in 2013. The Lambe Foundation contributed at least $4.8 million to the Heritage Foundation between 1998 and 2012.
In recent years, the Heritage Foundation has also received funding from Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund, including $53,300 in 2010 and $69,850 in 2012. The Koch brothers have donated millions of dollars to Donors Trust through the Knowledge and Progress Fund, and possibly other vehicles
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Heritage_Foundation#Ties_to_the_Koch_Brothers
Politico reports, “Heritage Foundation’s cozy relationship with Trump put to test”
“The Heritage Foundation has been cozying up to top White House aides and congressional leaders for months, hoping to put its conservative imprint on President Donald Trump’s policy agenda. But the first major bill that Republicans proposed — to repeal and replace Obamacare — runs completely afoul of Heritage’s priorities and threatens to upend a critical relationship between conservative activists and the Trump administration.”
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-conservatives-heritage-foundation-235845
Lloyd – you seem to be missing another “donor” to the Heritage Foundation.
http://origin.heritage.org/about/staff/departments/devos-center-for-religion-and-civil-society
I didn’t go beyond Sourcewatch, and I’m sure the Heritage Foundation is a destination for more like DeVos – people like Richard Mercer, the Walton family, etc.
Any organization that pushed the false agenda that will lead to the Alt-Right dystopian future of the U.S. and probably the world. I don’t think they only have their sights set on the U.S.
The disease for power knows no limits.
I should have included Bill Gates to that list of billionaires that support lies and misinformation for their destructive follies. After all, organization that Gates funds describes schools as “human capital pipelines”.
“The real reason for wanting to get rid of these programs is to free up that money to increase profits in the private sector education industry ”
The real reason is to cut taxes on the “1%” The profits are not as targeted as the Tax cuts.
The results are the same. The tunnel-vision rich get richer and will use the extra money to buy more influence in Washington DC and state capitals. It’s a pyrrhic cycle, because 99-percent of the people lose first and the suffering grows, but this self-servicing, ignorant agenda of the super rich will come back and tear off their backsides and then they will also bleed out. If there are any survivors, it will be a long road to rebuilt civilization. How long did it take Europe to rebuild after the Roman Empire collapsed and what caused the collapse?
The most straightforward theory for Western Rome’s collapse pins the fall on a string of military losses sustained against outside forces.
For the U.S., think Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
Economic troubles and overreliance on slave labor.
For the U.S. the huge national debt caused by military spending and the slaves are slaves to credit card debt because they are paid poverty wages often without benefits. I spent several hours once estimating that the U.S. has spent more than $40-trillion on its military since the end of World War II. Recently I read that the cost of maintaining hundreds of foreign military bases scattered around the world for the U.S. military costs an average of $150 billion annually.
History.com provides eight reasons and there are six more. Number 7 is interesting.
“Christianity and the loss of traditional values. The decline of Rome dovetailed with the spread of Christianity, and some have argued that the rise of a new faith helped contribute to the empire’s fall.”
All those working class (and heck, middle class, too) folks who voted for Donald are now getting royally hosed for the next 4 years. It’s their own damn children who are now going to suffer, all because he lied to these voters, and tricked them into voting for him.
Think Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan … they all thought, “He’s our guy. He’s got out backs!”
He’s got your backs alright. Now, he’s sticking a knife into them.
Actually—no improvement in tests. Maybe they got excited/engaged/curious about something we don’t test. Or made friends?? Would they be better off on the streets? Alone at home?
Outrageous stuff. Blood curdling.
The results were comparing what to what?
The after school programs I was involved in provided a supervised place to complete homework as well as an apporunity for enrichment via science experiments, chess club, cooking class, time in the gym, art club, music appreciation, etc. Plus, they got a hot meal.
Does every aspect of a child’s life have to involve a rubric or test score?
WOW Greg! Where do you get your information? While I’m sure there are parents who abuse the system, as someone who has been in their homes I can tell you that poverty sucks.
And even if what you say is true, the children are blameless. They have some basic human rights and one of those is nourishment.