McREL Joins in Effort to Study and Improve
After-School Programs
October 8, 2003
Aurora, Colo. — Mid-continent
Research for Education and Learning (McREL) in Aurora, Colo. and
six other research organizations have been selected by the U.S.
Department of Education to study and promote the improvement of
after-school programs across the nation.
The three-year, $9.6 million project, led by the Southwest Educational
Development Laboratory (SEDL) in Austin, Texas, will study and promote
improvement in more than 1,600 federally funded after-school programs.
In doing so, the collaborative effort will address concerns about
the effectiveness of these programs raised in a February 2003 report
from Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
Mathematica’s study of the 21st
Century Community Learning Centers program, which was done for
the Department of Education, concluded
that officials need to improve the content and rigor of the academic
programs offered.
“The evaluation report released earlier this year shed light
on the fact that not all after-school programs provide the same
benefits to students,” said McREL President and CEO Tim Waters.
“Some have improved achievement; others have not. Through
this major initiative, we will take a closer look at all of these
programs, identify the best programs, and help the rest learn from
the best.”
“After-school programs need a strong connection to the learning
objectives of the school day to successfully increase student achievement,”
said SEDL program manager Catherine Jordan, who will direct the
project. “This project will identify and validate existing
after-school programs that positively impact student achievement.
It also will create tools, provide training opportunities, and deliver
technical assistance to other after-school programs so they can
have similar results.”
“SEDL’s partners, the project’s staff, consultants,
and advisors bring to the table some of the most active and respected
experts in after-school programming, core academic content issues,
and evaluation and research related to the effectiveness of after-school
initiatives,” said SEDL President and CEO Wesley Hoover.
McREL brings to the partnership high-quality research and development
related to effective instruction, extensive knowledge of mathematics
and science curricula, and more than a decade of experience at the
forefront of the standards movement.
McREL will provide outreach, training, and technical assistance
to local program staff and work with state education agencies and
others in a 14-state region (Colo., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kan., Mich.,
Minn., Mo., Neb., N.D., Ohio, S.D., Wis., and Wyo.) to help identify
and validate best practices among 21st Century Community Learning
Centers in this region.
Other organizations partnering with McREL and SEDL on the project
are the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and
Student Testing (CRESST) at the University of California, Los Angeles;
the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) in Portland,
Ore.; SERVE in Greensboro, N.C.; WGBH Educational Foundation; and
The Institute for Responsive Education in Boston.
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McREL is a nationally recognized, private, nonprofit organization
located in Aurora, Colo., dedicated to improving education for all
students through applied research, product development and service.
Its staff of highly respected educators and researchers focuses
on providing educators and policymakers with the highest quality,
field-tested, research-based products and services available in
PreK–16 education.
