A journal of ideas for the world of after school and beyond

Vol. 1 no. 11 June/July 2007

Intentional Quality

Stephen M. Pratt, President

Dear Friends:

Everyone is in favor of “quality” in after school programs, of course. But quality has been left to the eye of the beholder in the absence of rigorous, evidence based research.  Over the past three years, a number of long-term studies on the impact of staffing, curriculum, duration and other factors have begun to bear fruit.  One of the first such studies was the Massachusetts After School Research Study (MARS), which found strong correlations between dosage (hours that a student participates) and child-level outcomes. 

Two members of our staff, Jennifer Maltby and Patricia McGuiness, recently attended the American Educational Research Association conference in Chicago, where the results of several long-term studies were shared. Some of the findings will reinforce things you already suspected about the central role of enrichment content and adult-child relationships in getting better outcomes. Others will surprise you: longevity of front-line staff doesn’t necessarily tie to stronger outcomes for youth.

In this issue, we share key findings from several of these studies. We hope you will dive in and find the research relevant to your work. And we invite you to join us on Monday, July 16th at Noon here at our offices at 89 South Street, for a brown bag lunch discussion of these findings and their implications for our field.

Thanks for reading,