Center for Community School Partnerships

Download the full report in Adobe Acrobat 5 PDF format.

The Center for Community School Partnerships at the University of California Davis, School of Education has recently completed a study of California's Afterschool and Safety Education (ASES) Program and 21st Century Community Learning Center grantees. The purpose of the study was to explore current afterschool evaluation practices and to ask what types of support would increase local capacity to conduct and use evaluations. The study looked at core program components, current evaluation activities and future interests and needs with respect to evaluation at the afterschool site level. Data included surveys received from 304 respondents and 9 afterschool regional leads, along with interviews that were conducted with 4 urban, rural and suburban afterschool programs.

The findings suggest the current structure of required evaluation process does not facilitate efficient evaluation practices at the site level; that local program leaders would like more, and more useful training on designing and using evaluation; and that there may be a mismatch between program activities, the realities of how participants engage in them, and the outcomes and measures employed by required evaluations. Recommendations include allocating resources specifically for supporting program evaluation activities and further consideration of what constitutes appropriate required program elements, outcomes and measures for California's afterschool programs. The full report may be found at either the CCSP or California Afterschool Network webpage. For further information regarding the study and its findings, please contact the Center for Community Partnerships at 530.752.1277.

CASN website: http://www.afterschoolnetwork.org/