After-School Programs

After-School Programs

Asil Ali Özdoğru and Judy Hartley

After-school programs provide organized and supervised activities for school-age children. The need for after-school programs in the United States emerged because of historical changes in American education and the workforce. Evaluations of programs show that high-quality programs foster positive outcomes in participating students. Current issues with implications for the future include: funding, staff professionalism, and advocacy. After-school programs are commonly defined as structured or unstructured, supervised programs for school-age children conducted before or after school hours. Programs may extend services to other out-of-school times such as evenings, weekends, days when school is closed, school vacations, summer break, teacher institute days, or parent-teacher conference days. Programs may be located in school buildings or in other community facilities that lend themselves to the space requirements necessary for after-school programming. Program content varies widely and may include: academic support, educational experiences, recreation and sports, life-skills development, and visual and performing arts and crafts...

Citation: Özdogru, A. A., & Hartley, J. (2013). After-school programs. In J. Ainsworth (Ed.), Sociology of education: An A-to-Z guide (Vol. 1, pp. 24–27). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452276151.n12