A 2023 U.S. Department of Education report on 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) programs nationally found that nearly half of participating students who were chronically absent the previous year improved their school-day attendance in the current school year, while a meta-analysis published the same year in the Journal of Community & Applied Psychology found a significant positive overall effect on afterschool program participants’ interpersonal skills, mental and behavioral health, and identity development. These are a sampling of the more than three dozen studies and reports summarized in a new Afterschool Alliance brief documenting afterschool and summer programs’ positive impact on students’ engagement in school, school-day attendance, academic performance, and mental well-being.
Also included in the brief are examples of school districts and program providers that used American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds to support afterschool and summer programming and the results from that investment. For example, Tuscaloosa City Schools braided $2.7 million in ARP funds with 21st CCLC and local city funds to create a free, full-day summer learning program that included both academics and enrichment activities for more than 3,000 of its elementary, middle, and high schoolers—more than doubling the number of students they were able to serve during previous summers. The district reported that three-quarters of students who attended at least 75 percent of the summer program showed no learning loss over the summer.
Find the full brief, Evaluating Afterschool: The Latest Research on the Impact of Afterschool and Summer Programs, on the Afterschool Alliance’s research page. Looking for additional data on outcomes associated with participation in afterschool and summer learning programs? Visit the Afterschool Impacts Database, which houses more than 150 summaries of evaluations examining the effect of afterschool and summer program participation.