What Makes High-Quality Afterschool Programming
When I was in undergrad, I worked at an afterschool program (ASP) for elementary school students that was one blacktop playground away from another. Every year, we would have one or two parents switch their child from our program to theirs. While the switch almost always revolved around programming costs, it was hard to see students leave. As I am sure many educators and those close to them know, you become invested in your students’ lives. You hear about their families, support them through personal struggles, and help them develop new skills.
As if saying farewell to students was not hard enough, almost every time we saw our old students, they would talk about needing snacks, not having the support they needed, or other students being mean. Most of the time, our students would end up coming back due to parents being shocked by the difference in quality between the two programs when we advertised the same services.
Due to the plethora of academic, social, and behavioral benefits associated with ASPs (Beal, 2024), there is a false assumption that the quality of programs is uniform and sufficient (Hirsch et al., 2010).
It is important that we challenge the assumption that all ASPs are created and implemented equally, as the benefits of ASPs are only present when program quality is high (Durlak et al., 2019; Yohalem & Wilson-Ahlstrom, 2010).
But what makes high-quality afterschool programming? That is the million-dollar question that researchers have yet to agree upon.
From my experiences working in and researching ASP, I believe that having a whole child-based design, prioritizing student engagement, having quality staff members, and strong administration are overarching tenets that make high-quality ASPs.