The Impact of After-School
Programs That Promote Personal and Social Skills (2007)
www.casel.org/downloads/ASP-Full.pdf
Durlak and Weissberg evaluated the impact of a set of after-school
programs that attempted to enhance youths’ personal and social
skills and described the features that characterized effective programs.
They found that effective programs used evidence-based approaches
for their components. Programs that focused on specific social or
personal skills were most successful when they were SAFE -- sequenced,
active, focused and explicit. This paper is primarily a research document
with summary findings about effective after-school programs.
Author/Publisher: Durlak, Joseph A. and Roger P. Weissberg. Chicago:
Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL).
Getting It Right: Strategies for After-School Success (2005)
www.ppv.org/ppv/publications/assets/190_publication.pdf
Raley, Grossman and Walker looked at 10 years of findings from P/PV's
and others' research on after-school programs. They found that programs
that tried to fulfill too many goals were not likely to achieve
any. The paper suggests that programs should ask what they can reasonably
achieve given the available human and financial resources and also
whether the strategies that it has in place are in line with the
goal. This report provides a series of recommendations for after-school
programs that intend to produce measurable outcomes for young people.
Author/Publisher: Raley, Rebecca, Jean Grossman and Karen E. Walker.
Philadelphia: Public/Private Ventures.
Intentional Youth Programs: Taking Theory to Practice .
Chapter Five: New Directions for Youth Development: Rethinking Programs
for Youth in the Middle Years. (2006)
Walker presents a theoretical framework suggesting that the two
most important features of an engaging youth development program
are: 1) an emphasis on youth development and 2) an intentional strategy
to design and implement developmentally appropriate learning experiences.
This chapter of the book provides a clear explanation of the theory
of developmental intentionality.
Author/Publisher: Walker, Joyce. Edited by Dale A. Blyth and Joyce
A. Walker.
Designing Youth Development Programs: Toward a Theory
of Developmental Intentionality. Chapter 18: Organized Activities
as Contexts of Development: Extracurricular Activities, After-School
and Community Programs. (2005)
Walker et al lay out the basic components of the theory of developmental
intentionality, describe the essential components and provide an
illustration that shows the implementation of the theory within
a youth program. They looked at the relationship between developmental
outcomes, youth engagement and intentionality in the philosophy,
design and delivery of program supports and opportunities for young
people.
Author/Publisher: Walker, Joyce, Mary Marczak, Dale A. Blyth and
Lynne Borden. Edited by Joseph L. Mahoney, Reed W. Larson and Jacquelynne
S. Eccles. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.