Cooke Middle School After-School Recreation Program

OVERVIEW

The Cooke Middle School After-School Recreation Program is a program designed to promote the physical, emotional, and social well-being of middle school students in high poverty areas by providing an adult-supervised environment with opportunities for exercise and other extracurricular activities.  For two hours after the completion of the school day, students enrolled in the program are able to participate in activities, including fitness and sports, classroom-based activities such as reading, homework and drawing, or a dance group. An experimental evaluation randomly assigned applicants to the program or a non-treatment control group. Analyses found an increase in time per week spent doing homework, students’ aspirations for education after high-school graduation, and time spent engaged in fitness training among adolescents in the intervention group, as compared with those in the control group.  There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups for students’ in-school behavior, school attendance, academic performance, standardized test scores, time spent watching television or time spent on self-care.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: Children and adolescents (10 to 15 years-old) attending middle school.

The Cooke Middle School After-School Recreation program is a program designed to promote the physical, emotional, and social well-being of middle school students in poverty-impacted areas by providing an adult-supervised environment with opportunities for exercise and other extracurricular activities.  For two hours after school (5pm to 7pm), four evenings per week students in the program are able participate in activities held at the school site. The activities include: fitness center, sports, socializing with friends, jump-rope, arts and crafts, and a dance troupe.  Homework help and tutoring are not specifically provided. The program is unstructured and allows participants to choose their activities at each attendance, and about 30 students participated on an average day.  A director, school teachers, outside program staff, and security personnel oversee the activities and supervise students.          

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

 

Lauver SC. (2002). Assessing the Benefits of an After-School Program for Urban Youth: An Impact and Process Evaluation. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. University of Pennsylvania.

Evaluated population: A total of 227 students participated in the study, ranging in age from 10-15 years. Fifty-nine percent (59%) of the students were in seventh and eighth grade. 83% of the participants were African American and 60% were male. Nearly half were from single parents families and another 13% lived with a foster parent or other guardian.  

Approach: Students were recruited through school flyers, signs posted at school, public address system announcements, an information table at parent-teacher conferences, and in-person reminders in their school classrooms. 227 students applied to the program. Of these, 126 were randomly assigned to the after-school program intervention and the remaining 101 served as the control group.  Intervention students received the opportunity to attend a recreational program held at the school for two hours in the evening, four evenings each week when school was in session. At baseline and at end of the school year, students filled out a questionnaire including questions about background characteristics, involvement in school-related and extracurricular activities, sense of self-esteem and ability to resolve conflict, safety at school, perceptions about school, time spent on various activities and homework, and expectations for the future. 

Results: The after-school program was found to have significant positive impacts on time per week spent doing homework, aspirations for education after high school graduation, and time spent engaged in fitness training at home or a fitness center in adolescents in the intervention group, as compared with the control group.  There were no measurable impacts of the after-school program on other extracurricular activities; academic grades or standardized test scores; in-school behavior or attendance; or on time spent watching television or in self-care.    

The researcher notes many problems with the implementation of the program, most notably low student participation rates and inconsistent staff attendance.  

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION
 

References

Lauver SC. (2002). Assessing the Benefits of an After-School Program for Urban Youth: An Impact and Process Evaluation. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. University of Pennsylvania.

Available from ProQuest: http://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI3043903.

KEYWORDS: Middle School, Adolescence (12-17), School-based, Urban, Social/Emotional Health

Program information last updated on 2/18/2011.

© Child Trends 2003