School-Age Programs Going Academic

"The secret of patience:  Do something else in the meantime." - Anonymous

SCHOOL-AGE PROGRAMS GOING ACADEMIC?

An article in the Arizona Republic (August 5, 2003), "After-school programs go academic" observes that . . .
"Students enrolling in after-school programs this year are more likely to hit the books than the basketball courts. The after-school program, once simply a haven for children until their working parents could pick them up, is now an extension of the classroom. A new federal law that requires every child in the country to be achieving at grade level in 10 years is pushing the national trend toward academics. Federal after-school grants, once meant to pay for recreational programs that kept kids off the streets, now require academic programming, from homework help and tutoring to arts and crafts that teach measurement, counting and geometry.

"In the past two years, Arizona received $13 million in federal after-school grants, specifically designed to improve students' skills in reading and math. It's the same story for programs funded with private money. J.C. Penney Co. Inc. has given $10 million to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, earmarked to boost academic achievement at its 3,500 after-school programs across the nation . . .

"At Boys and Girls Clubs throughout the Valley, the first hour of every day's after-school program is dedicated to homework and tutoring. 'The kids fought it a little, but once they got into a routine, it works out well,' Director Duane Nelson reports . . .

"In Phoenix, where 64 schools were labeled 'underperforming' by the state last fall, the city has responded by altering its after-school programs. Under a program called the Violence Prevention Initiative, in place since the late 1990s, Phoenix has increased the number of after-school programs to 166 from 30.  Initially, the programs were not academic; they were meant to keep kids safe, Vice Mayor Greg Stanton said. Phoenix houses most of its programs, which serve more than 30,000 children, on school campuses. But now the goal is to blend each after-school program with its neighborhood school curriculum and hire teachers to help design activities that will raise a child's test scores.

"'This is a sea change in how we interact with our schools,' Stanton said. 'No longer will we be speaking a different language'. . .

"But the pendulum has swung too far toward academics for some. 'Time to play, run off steam and socialize need to be part a bigger part of the after-school agenda,' said Annemarie Avanti, executive director of Arizona School-Age Coalition.  'After-school programs need to wrap learning into more traditional fun activities for kids and not be used to extend the school day,' she said.

"'We're very concerned people are looking at after-school programs as a panacea,' Avanti said. 'You can't shore up a failing system in three hours a day.'"

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