After-School Worlds: Creating a New Social Space for Development and Learning(101 New Directions for Youth Development)

This book showcases a variety of large scale policy initiatives, effective institutional collaborations, and innovative programming options that produce high quality environments in which young people are realizing their potential. The contributors underscore the conditions from fostering interagency partnerships, to structuring organized out of school time activities, to encouraging staff student relationships that lay the groundwork for positive youth development after school. At the same time, their examples illuminate the challenges for policymakers, researchers, and educators to redefine the field of afterschool as a whole, including the search for a shared lexicon, the push to preserve the character of after school as an intermediary space, and the need to create and further programs that are grounded in reliable research and that demonstrate success. This is the 101st issue of the quarterly journal "New Directions for Youth Development".

Table of Contents:
Editor's Notes (Gil G. Noam). Executive Summary. 1. Remarks (Thomas M. Menino) Mayor Thomas M. Menino emphasizes the need to rigorously evaluate programs--to find out which ones work and which do not--so that we do not expend limited resources unwisely. 2. Remarks (Lawrence H. Summers) Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers charges educators to find a rigorous, research-based definition of quality learning. He also argues the need of opening up the concept of outcomes to include harder-to-define psychological elements such as self-cofidence, preparation, and attachment to learning. 3. Blurring the lines for learning: The role of out-of-school programs as complements to formal learning (Karen J. Pittman, Merita Irby, Nicole Yohalem, Alicia Wilson-Ahlstrom) As debates continue over the effectiveness of after-school programs, we need to create stronger links between schools and out-of-school activities. This chapter examines how we can integrate skill-building and academic competence into the out-of-school-time context. 4. Out-of-school-hours learning in the United Kingdom (Ian Fordham) In the United Kingdom, out-of-school-hours learning is incorporated into education policy. This chapter tells the story of how demonstration projects, political lobbying, and funding combined with training, youth work, and schools to make such innovation mainstream "across the pond." 5. After-school as intermediary space: Theory and typology of partnerships (Gil G. Noam, Jodi Rosenbaum Tillinger) This chapter explores the nature of after-school partnerships and sets forth a theory and typology describing the ways in which the intersection of partners creates a unique intermediary space. 6. Processes of adjustment in organized out-of-school activities: Opportunities and risks (Joseph L. Mahoney, Jacquelynne S. Eccles, Reed W. Larson) Participation in organized out-of-school activities leads to long-term psychosocial and educational benefits for young people. Now we're learning which features of these activities best support individual children. 7. The critical ingredient: Caring youth-staff relationships in after-school settings (Jean E. Rhodes) After-school settings are interpersonal in nature, and the quality of the relationships forged can directly influence both attendance rates and developmental benefits. Programs can effectively capitalize on this potential. Index.