Leadership of Afterschool and Supplemental Education Creating Seamless Pathways to Post-Secondary Life.docx

Leadership of Afterschooland Supplemental EducationCreating Seamless Pathways toPost-Secondary LifeHazel M. CarterLeadership ofAfterschool and Supplemental EducationThis book explores the design and implementation of effective supplementary education programs that best prepare students for post-secondary life. Drawing from research and best practice in the fields of supplementary and afterschool education, youth development, and school-college-community partnerships, this book outlines a balanced approach to viewing supplementary education and community-based programs, which when designed alongside classroom learning, can meet the needs of underserved youth. This book challenges aspiring educational leaders to confront the traditional approach to curriculum as the sole purview of the classroom and instead positions supplementary education as a tool to improve schools and student success.Chapters discuss designing, implementing, and sustaining supplementary education programs that positively impact the social, emotional, and academic development of secondary school students, as well as effective strategies for developing stronger connections with the community. This text is designed for use in graduate preparation programs in educational leadership and includes pedagogical features such as learning objectives, reflective exercises, portfoliobuilding activities, and alignment to educational leadership standards.Hazel M. Carter is Associate Professor of Educational Leadership ar the City College of New York, USA.Taylor FrancisTaylor & Francis GroupLeadership of Afterschool and Supplemental EducationCreating Seamless Pathways toPost-Secondary LifeHAZEL M. CARTERRoutledgeTaylor & Francis GroupNFW YORK AND IONDONCover image: © Getty ImagesFirst published 2023by Routledge605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158and by Rourledge4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, 0X14 4RNRoutledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business© 2023 Hazel M. CarterThe right of Hazel M. Carter to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataA catalog record for this title has been requestedISBN: 978-0-367-63981-5 (hbk)ISBN: 978-0-367-64093-4 (pbk)ISBN: 978-1-003-12213-5 (ebk)DOI: 10.4324/9781003122135Typeset in Sabonby Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, IndiaThis book is dedicated to two very special people. First, to my son JeromeCarter, who as a child inspired me to seek out quality out-of-schoolexperiences which allowed him to thrive and to become whole. And to mysister, Alsuna Millington, who steadfastly continues to be my rock of support.Taylor FrancisTaylor & Francis GroupCONTENTSForeword viiiPreface ×iAcknowledgments xixCHAPTER 1CHAPTER 2Gaps in Services, Infrastructure, and Opportunities 1Using Youth Development to ReframeSupplemental Education: Developing aConceptional Framework for Student Success 19CHAPTER 3Enlisting Community Support for SupplementalEducation 40CHAPTER 4Reconfiguring the Role of School Support Staff:Lessons from the Community 58CHAPTERSImpact of Afterschool Education on CollegePersistence 79CHAPTER 6Partners in Lifelong Learning: Engaging Parents and Families in the Success of Children 111CHAPTER 7Students Taking the Lead: The Importance ofPeer Mentoring 124CHAPTER 8Expanding STEM Education Opportunities through Supplemental Education 140CHAPTER 9Funding Afterschool and SupplementalEducation Programs 158CHAPTER 10Some Concluding Thoughts 170Appendix A: LaGuardia Community CoIIegeZQueens Urban Partnership GEAR UP Activities 175Appendix B: Middle Grades Report 178Af)PendiX C: GEAR UP Afterschoolz Saturday, and SummerStudent Programs 193Index 196VllFOREWORDAfterschool programs, in spite of whether they are theme-focused or comprehensive in their approaches, offer the kinds of supportive environments necessary and invaluable for adolescents to have access to adults, opportunities to become learners, and options to improve their life trajectories.The newly published book, Leadership of Afterschool and Supplemental Education, comes at a most opportune time for everyone with an interest in identifying creative and informed ways to keep youth engaged in learning, especially youth who do not necessarily have positive reference groups in their immediate environments and therefore may be motivated neither to even enter nor graduate from high school. The author acknowledges that while schools are essential for promoting and preparing youth for adulthood and life, schools are rarely equipped to provide the essential social, emotional, and even academic tools needed today by young people in middle and high schools. Many youth, especially youth of color, have little or no access to the special skillset required for successful participation in today's society. However, if and when they participate in high-quality afterschool programs, their academic and social-emotional needs will be met by a range of caring adults who may be counselors, teachers, mentors, or even peers.Many essays, articles, rhe media, and other voices have pondered about the loss of learning for children and youth nationwide because the COVID pandemic has lasted so long. Prior to COVID, the focus was usually on usum- mer loss"，especially as observed in children and youth from communities that were struggling economically and socially. Aware of the remarkable work being accomplished and the positive results being achieved by numerous afterschool programs, the answer, to me, was obvious: fund and expand afterschool programs to improve student learning across the grades. I was therefore heartened to read Dr. Carter's statement that uthe interruption in learning brought about by the Covid pandemic has shown us that supplemental education is even more critical in helping students meet their academic needsw.We are presented with evidence from the research and her own observations about how adolescents learn best and how they may be engaged in learning； the need for their teachers to be knowledgeable about adolescent growth and development; and the importance of their own continued professional development. Every element critical to the learning, planning, and implementation of afterschool programs, also known as supplementary education, has been identified and its results/impact amplified through vignettes from existing programs. The inclusion of lessons learned at the end of each chapter will be invaluable to the field of afterschool education and especially to organizations like PASE whose founding goal in 1993 was to meet the training needs of multiple level employees in the afterschool and nonprofit world.The idea for an organization addressing the training needs of afterschool and other nonprofit staff grew from compelling research in the lace 1980s revealing that youth in poor urban neighborhoods were at risk for many negative outcomes due to factors such as changing family and work patterns, welfare reform, negative educational experiences, and lack of caring adults with whom youth could form positive relationships. Many afterschool programs for children and youth existed in the city; however, there was little or no coordination among them and no shared results from exemplary models to be replicated. To change this situation, practitioners and funders came together and after thoughtful discussions, and acknowledging the emerging research on adolescent development, resiliency, and youth as community assets, founded rhe Partnership for Afterschool Education (PASE), also mentioned in the book. Another goal in those early discussions was to professionalize the afterschool field by requiring that the core of afterschool programming had to be based on youth development principles alongside academic support activities and that youth development would be the conceptual framework for successfully serving youth. During that period, there were conferences, articles in abundance extolling the value of afterschool experiences, and scholarly research as well as new funding streams for programs. More recently, there seems to have been a dearth of articles and research, until now.Since that period, the numbers of afterschool programs have increased to meet both comprehensive educational or theme-specific needs, and the new leaders need and will find much guidance in this book, from assessing community and school needs to involving school support teams, e.g., social workers, to writing proposals for funding. Dr. Carter advocates for afterschool and schools to work together co improve student outcomes and recognizes that because the design of afterschool programs varies widely, from multipurpose, academically oriented/college prep to specialty interest, e.g., sports and theater, there is no one perfect model. However, there is evidence that students attending high-quality afterschool programs show marked improvement in their school attendance and school work.Practitioners and educators will discover effective strategies to engage students, parents, and caregivers in their children's education. The current challenge is using those strategies successfully in a virtual environment, especially when students turn off their cameras. In general, some strategies include smaller student groupings, flexible scheduling, curriculum integration, advisories, peer and adult mentoring, providing stem education, and even the range of funding available and how to obtain them. Attention should also be paid to the many transitions in the lives of adolescents, especially the transition co large high schools and later, to college. All these transitions could be eased through thoughtful planning for visits and tours to the high schools and/or college prior to attending. Peer mentoring where older students mentor younger ones has proven to not only benefit the younger children but also help the older mentors. In addition, using college students as mentors could provide a mix of benefits. Besides college students becoming a natural resource to motivate youth to attend college, there is the potential for a school/college partnership to develop.Over nine thoroughly researched and detailed chapters, Dr. Carter has provided a blueprint for all the factors to be addressed in the planning, designing, and implementation of effective program practices, all of which must be anchored within a youth development conceptual framework. Exemplary afterschool programs provide opportunities for youth to connect with a combination of caring adults, mentors, cultural connections, sociai/emotional supports, college preparation knowledge, learning through trips, unplanned discoveries, hands-on activities, and ocher resources.In addition, collaboration between schools and afterschool programs to benefit youth by leveraging their resources is a consistent theme throughout the text. School leaders are encouraged to reach out to community providers to build winteragency and cross-system collaborations”. Using afterschool and supplemental education interchangeably, Dr. Carter clearly supports the existence of and understands the value of afterschool programs to disrupt the poor academic and social-emotional experiences to which so many young people are exposed in their schools. Simultaneously, she is aware that many of those students do not have access to any afterschool experiences.The identification of barriers to program development and participation is among the initial steps to design and implement effective programs. This book offers new ways to assess the activities, outcomes, leadership, partnerships, community resources, and contains a rich resource of information for nonprofit leaders, educators, and other providers, introducing them to new ways of assessing or thinking about their programs and their outcomes. Dr. Carter has succeeded in pulling together in one place a wealth of information, pedagogical approaches, research findings, a variety of program models, lessons learned, and themes for the reader to review, learn from, and use as needed.Fern J. KhanDean Emerita, Bank Street CollegePREFACEPURPOSE OFTHE BOOKAfterschool and supplemental education can no longer be seen as an afterthought. For schools, it must be seen as an important corollary to in-school instruction, and for youth-serving community-based organizations, working with schools continues to be an integral component of their mission. Higher education institutions can assume the role of broker bringing schools and community-based organizations together in partnership agreements that ensure that students are well-prepared to enter the doors of colleges, and later become valuable contributors to the economy. It is my belief that underserved populations, regardless of race, need to be prepared to successfully pursue a college degree as it is a more secure pathway to becoming productive citizens. While I am aware that not everyone will get that college degree, all sectors involved in developing youth must see the academic and social-emotional success Of young people as a reflection of society.Creating seamless pathways to post-secondary readiness is not a singular journey between schools and students. The author uses the African proverb “it takes a village to raise a child* to describe the community which comprises higher education institutions, school systems, community-based organizations, parents, and business and government agencies, all working together toward preparing the next generation of high school graduates who will be better prepared to enter college and the workplace. The book addresses several key questions： What role does afterschool and supplementary education play in addressing the gaps in the education of underserved youth? How does afterschool and supplemental education impact the social, emotional, and academic development of secondary school students? What impact does the source of funding these programs have on sustainability and community building? While higher education institutions have had a long tradition of working with schools around the college preparation of secondary school st