After School
The Department of Education is sponsoring a new initiative--after school community learning centers targeted to urban and rural areas where issues of safety and drug-free environments lay at the top of the priority list...
Links
The Department of Education is sponsoring a new initiative--after school community learning centers targeted to urban and rural areas where issues of safety and drug-free environments lay at the top of the priority list. This site merely provides the information for applying for the $653 million available funds. At long last enough data was amassed to convince policy-makers that young folks get into trouble most frequently after regular school hours and that valuable facilities are unused for the major part of the day, this program was included in the new national educational budget. For 2000-2001 Congress could authorize 1 billion $. The site also offers case studies of effective programs.
MCREL has amassed a set of papers--theory, studies, case reports--to explore the effectiveness of after school learning centers. This collection provides the backup data for illustrating the benefits and limitations of this concept to policy-makers and givers of grants, such as local businesses.
According to the results of a recent survey, conducted by the Mott Foundation and JCPenny and reported in the DOE's "Community Update", about 90% of the voting public endorse after-school and summer programs. Mott, committed to this initiative for years, is now investing $100 million.
An "Afterschool Action Kit" for raising awareness and expandng funding resources is available at the After School Programs Web site or by calling 1-87-4ED-PUBS. One section offers hints for students who could be the first in their family to be interestd in attending college.
Let's return to the 21stCCLC during the next three years and see what models have emerged.
Annotation
It does not seem like a big secret that one difference between richer and poorer communities is the availability of productive extra-curricular resources for students. This initiative could prove to be one of the most powerful contributions to education in this century.
