Academy for Educational Development

Afterschool.org: Promoting Promising Practices

Every afternoon after school lets out, more than 14 million youth in the United States spend time alone without any adult supervision or organized activities. Research has shown that young people flock to afterschool programs that have high-quality practices in place.

In order to improve the quality of existing afterschool programs and increase the availability of such activities, AED has created a Web site to capture and disseminate promising practices in afterschool programs.

Practices are more than just activities youth do to pass time, according to Bonnie Politz, the vice president and director of the AED Center for Youth Development and Policy Research. The practice is the underlying rationale for any activity undertaken in an afterschool program.

For example, a practice may be to provide young people with opportunities to become familiar with learning resources in their community. “There are many different activities that can go along with that practice,” said Politz. The youth could map the resources in their community or conduct research at their local library and prepare a report on what they have found.

Virtual Library

Strong practices lead to positive social, emotional, cognitive, and cultural outcomes, she said, and “we want to share this in the best way we can with people all over the country.”

To that end, AED, with funding from the C.S. Mott Foundation, has created a virtual library of promising practices at www.afterschool.org. The site includes information on how a practice was developed, how it is being implemented, a description of the program implementing the practice, sample activities pertaining to the practice, and outcomes from those activities. Practices undergo a rigorous peer review process before being named promising.

One promising practice—to provide opportunities for all students to participate in a science enrichment afterschool program—can be found at the Washington State University at Spokane CityLab afterschool program.

The Web site lists detailed information about the program, how the practice is working, activities CityLab is using—such as creating science clubs and conducting teacher training—contact information for people within the program, and outcomes they have seen.

In addition to detailed information about practices, the site lists hundreds of links to other activities, research, and funding resources. Afterschool.org is proving to be an actively used resource, averaging around 13,000 visits per month.

Through the Promising Practices e-mail listserv operated by Afterschool.org, there are running dialogues on topics such as community collaboration, transportation, funding, mentoring programs, and how to use technology to track students. Everyday participants from rural, urban, and suburban settings share ideas, resources, and strategies through the 2000-member e-mail listserv.

Members of the listserv are made up of a diverse set of people who care about afterschool programs. “Afterschool program directors and staff, researchers, municipal leaders, policymakers, educators, media, university faculty, and health educators all actively participate,” Politz said.

Building a bridge between such diverse groups of people who are all interested in same subject is a strength AED brings to this project, she said. “Our connections in youth development, education, workforce development, communications, health initiatives, and social marketing have enabled us to enhance the Web site and let more people know about it.”

For more information, contact Gina Davis.

Read more about our work with U.S. youth.