Investments in Building Citywide Out-of-School-Time Systems: A Six-City Study

by Cheryl Hayes, Christianne Lind, Jean Baldwin Grossman, Nichold Stewart, Sharon Deich, Andrew Gersick, Jennifer McMaken and Margo Campbell, The Finance Project, September 2009 A Guide to the Report This report is organized into seven chapters. A series of appendices provide additional information about system-building efforts in each of the six cities.

• Chapter 1 introduces a conceptual framework for OST system building. It also describes the purpose of the study, the six cities examined and the methodology for analyzing investments.
• Chapter 2 provides some context for understanding investments in OST system building.
• Chapters 3 through 6 present key findings about investments in the core components of OST systems highlighted in our conceptual framework: providing leadership, improving program quality, expanding access to and participation in OST programs, and financing and sustaining citywide OST programming and infrastructure.
• Chapter 7 reviews and discusses the implications of the study’s findings for policy, practice and future research.

(Except from "The Executive Summary")