PROGRAM PLAN

MAKING AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAM BETTER (HUANG AND DIETEL)

Goal
o

Description:

Goal is the cornerstone of afterschool program success. Having a clear

and unambiguous goal is the basic requirement for a strong and
effective afterschool program. Also, student voices are the most
important component when making goals. Involving student voices can
make them more engage and exciting to be in the afterschool program.

Key Findings:

Clearly defined goals in a written plan.

Curricular design and specific practices aligned to program goals.

Had a specific emphasis (e.g. Science, technology, homework support,

community involvement, or the art).

Personal Program Plans:

In the personal program plans, the goal is for the students to not only
catch up on their academic but also emphasize the project base learning
experiences, which will expand their horizon in many different ways and
increase students excitement in learning. In order to do that, a strong
bridging system is necessary. According to Noams article, some of the
best ones are embracing some of the curricular goals of the school day,
including science, language, and social studies, and building communityfocused and enriching projects that invite youth participation. Teachers
from afterschool program need to know students academic behavior

and process in school. School and afterschool program need a good

communication system. From there on, afterschool staffs can form
different kind of project base programs to help students expanding
horizons in different specific subject.
o

Source:

Huang, D. & Dietel, R. (2011). Making afterschool programs better.

National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student
Testing (CRESST), UCLA.
http://www.cse.ucla.edu/products/policy/huang_MAPB_v5.pdf

Noam, Gil G. "Learning with excitement: Bridging school and afterschool

worlds and projectbased learning." New Directions for Youth
Development2003.97 (2003): 121-138

Leadership
o

Description:

Leadership is critical for a strong afterschool program. The best

afterschool program has a bottoms-up management style with welleducated, experienced and has longevity at the current site leaders.
Directors and managers will always communicate and discuss their
plans, goals, and evaluation with the staffs and students.

Key Findings:

Articulated a clear program mission, vision statement, and goals

Decentralized decision making; used a bottoms up leadership style

Trusted in the knowledge and skills of staff regarding curriculum and

instruction.

Personal Program Plans:

A strong leadership is built upon a strong communication system that

makes every school members feel a sense of belonging. First we need a
clear goals, program missions, and visions statements that lead the
staffs member and students toward the same direction. According to
Huang and Dietels article, leaders and staff across high-quality
programs maintained good relationships with the day school personal.
Only with a strong communication system, a bottom up leadership style
can be formed. Giving staffs and students the power to involve and take
part of the leadership will increase their loyalty and interest in the
program. Last but not least, trust is the biggest challenge. Trusting the
staffs to have knowledge and methods to reach the final goals,
programs missions, and visions statements. With strong trust in the
bottom up leadership style, all staffs and students will have their voice
and a sense of belonging that make them passionate and excited to
learn or contribute to the program.

Source:

Huang, D. & Dietel, R. (2011). Making afterschool programs better.

National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student
Testing (CRESST), UCLA.
http://www.cse.ucla.edu/products/policy/huang_MAPB_v5.pdf

Staff
o

Description:

With collegial environments supporting staffs, high quality staffs are

usual the ones who are the role model for students. They often have

high expectations with students behavior, good school attendance,

effective work habits, and positive attitudes toward learning. The best
relationship between student and staffs are the one that is
characterized by mutual respect and warmth.
o

Key Findings:

Program staff at high quality sites also tended to have low turnover. The
majority of staff had been at their current site for three years or more

Staff from quality programs generally had high educational levels.

Fortyseven percent of all staff had Bachelors degrees; twenty-four
percent had a Masters degree.

Positive relationships and interactions between the staff and the

students were observed in virtually all high quality programs,
particularly in terms of expectations for student performance,
disciplinary issues, and democracy.

Personal Program Plans:

When looking at staffs quality, it is closely related to the collegial

environment. A positive environment is crucial to decreasing the
turnover rate of staffs because they enjoy their working environment.
The longer the same teachers stay in the same program, the better they
know about their students, which will most likely create a positive
relationships and interactions between them. As the Motts article
mentioned one of the core competencies for afterschool educators is
the ability to relate to and work well with diverse children and youth
(2009). After building up a good relationship and minimum turnover

rate, staffs education level is critical. Staffs with high education level
are more likely to have the knowledge in different subjects to offer to
the children. They also are more likely to know the techniques or
methods of teaching in class.
o

Source:

Huang, D. & Dietel, R. (2011). Making afterschool programs better.

National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student
Testing (CRESST), UCLA.
http://www.cse.ucla.edu/products/policy/huang_MAPB_v5.pdf

Charles Stewart Mott Foundation (2009). Core Competencies For

Afterschool Educators.
http://www.afterschoolprofessional.info/images/Mott_CC_web.pdf

Program
o

Description:

Different programs use different curriculum. Every program offer at

least two or three activities a day. Activities include the most basic
session, homework helping, and other activities ranged from academic,
enrichment and to recreation. Afterschool program is a place to keep
student engaged while exercising other parts of their brains.

Key Findings:

The majority of programs employed unique and innovative strategies to

engage students in the afterschool setting, placing a particular emphasis
on making learning fun.

Technology, science, arts, and homework programs appeared to be

more focused on developing higher order thinking skills, whereas
reading and math programs were more focused on direct skills
instruction.

However, links to day school curriculum were at low levels, even at high
quality sites. Communications with the day school teachers occurred
mostly in forms of brief, informal contacts such as email or casual dropin conversations. The key topics on most of the communications
between day school and afterschool were homework related.

Personal Program Plans:

Afterschool programs need to have at least two activities every day.

These two activities are not including the most basic homework helping
session. In total, including the homework helping session, there will be
three activities every day. Regardless of what kind of methods teachers
use in class, in order for the students to fully engage in the activities, all
the activities need to be fun and purposeful. Program need a mix of the
more focused on direct skills instruction and the more focused on
developing higher order thinking skills. A perfect program is wellbalanced, well rounded, and full with a lot of different things to offer to
the children; a program that will open up childrens minds to new things.
In order to do that, knowing the children are very important, especially
those has different culture background. Research on schools and
programs that appear to be closing the achievement gap also indicates
that many of these successes benefit from partnerships among schools,

community members, and institutions that reduce ethnic, linguistic, and

socioeconomic disparities in educational outcomes (Maxwell). In order
to know students weakness and strength and their personalities,
partnership between the parents and afterschool program is important.
o

Source:

Huang, D. & Dietel, R. (2011). Making afterschool programs better.

National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student
Testing (CRESST), UCLA.
http://www.cse.ucla.edu/products/policy/huang_MAPB_v5.pdf

Maxwell-Jolly, Julie Maxwell-Jolly.(Feb 2011). English Learners And

Out-Of-School-Time Programs: The Potential of OST Programs to
Foster English Learner Success. Davis, CA
http://www.afterschoolnetwork.org/sites/main/files/fileattachments/soe_research_brief_0.pdf

Evaluation
o

Description:

There are two types of evaluation. First the internal evaluation, which
most afterschool programs uses. It is often called formative evaluation,
was usually done by the programs own staff or staff within its funding
agencies governance structure. Second, the external evaluation, which
has higher consequences for programs and was nearly always
conducted by a disinterested third party. No matter which evaluation
the afterschool programs use, evaluation system should always make
continuous improvement.

Key Findings:

Conducted internal evaluations to make continuous improvement.

Conducted external evaluations to maintain the reading and math

programs level.

External evaluation methodologies typically included pre-post testing or

classroom evaluations, comparison groups, surveys, focus groups,
observational assessments, or a combination of methods.

Personal Program Plans:

In the beginning of the semester or quarter, I will make students, staffs,

parents to take an internal evaluation to see how they think about the
afterschool program. On the evaluation form it will include four
questions. First, rather the students are interested and engaged with
the program, and what are some of their favorite activities. Second, do
they think the students improved from last semester? Third, how will
they rate the staffs? Last but not least, rate the afterschool overall
behavior. Furthermore, since approximately one third of the programs
in the state take external evaluator for the reading and math programs,
my afterschool program will also take the external evaluator to maintain
the reading and math programs level. The methods I will use for my
evaluation included pre-post testing, classroom evaluations and
comparison groups. Using pre-post testing I will know rather students
improvement or not before and after the semester. Also with the assist
of classroom evaluations and comparison groups, we can make sure
that our program is constantly improving and not falling behind from
other groups.

Source:

Huang, D. & Dietel, R. (2011). Making afterschool programs better.

National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student
Testing (CRESST), UCLA.
http://www.cse.ucla.edu/products/policy/huang_MAPB_v5.pdf