Promoting Positive Development through Efficacious After School Programs

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Out-of-school time (OST) programs have been shown to have positive effects on young people's cognitive, social-emotional, behavioral, and physical health outcomes (e.g., Durlak and Weissberg, 2007; Lauer, Akiba, Wilkerson, Apthorp, Snow, and Martin-Glenn, 2006; Little and Harris, 2003; Society for Research on Child Development, 2008). The prevalence of OST programs, now serving over 6.5 million of the nation's children, and the increase in federal and state funds for such programs, comes with a concomitant demand for high quality and evidence-based programs that can realize the full potential of this important developmental context (Afterschool Alliance, 2004; SRCD, 2008; U.S. Department of Education, 2001). The overall objective of the proposed project is to identify and provide OST professionals and others who work with children with easy access to OST programs shown to be efficacious in improving young people's cognitive, social-emotional, behavioral, and physical health outcomes. Toward this end, the primary aims are to develop a comprehensive set of replication resources including: 1. ASPARA (After School Program Archive to Raise Achievement), a program archive of efficacious OST programs, consisting of standardized replication kits containing all the materials necessary to replicate an efficacious program in a new site, such as teachers' guides, curricula, training videos, parent materials, activity handouts, and original evaluation instruments; 2. An Online Program Selection Tool to guide OST professionals in selecting the best efficacious program in ASPARA for their service context based on practical criteria, such as the population being targeted, program goals, and program setting; and 3. A Multimedia Professional Development Tutorial to support the implementation of efficacious programs by providing information on the OST context and research base, program selection and adaptation, and approaches to evaluation. Project staff will utilize a sequenced, iterative process to identify and package efficacious OST programs and develop the ancillary resources to facilitate their use. Collectively, the resources developed under the auspices of this project will increase ease of access to efficacious OST programs for purposes of broader replication and assessment, as well as professional development for OST staff faced with implementation of such programs. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The resources developed under the auspices of this project will provide OST professionals with easy access to OST programs shown to be efficacious in improving young people's cognitive, social-emotional, behavioral, and health outcomes and facilitate the implementation and re-evaluation of these programs in new contexts.