America After 3PM Special Report on Summer: Missed Opportunities, Unmet Demand
New analysis of data from the America After 3PM study concludes that three-quarters of America's school-age children do not participate in summer learning programs. Sponsored by the Wallace Foundation, this report offers a snapshot of how children do spend their summers, and finds that the nation is missing a key opportunity to help millions of children achieve school success. (State-specific date are available.)

RI KIDS COUNT releases 16th annual Factbook
This invaluable guide reports on 67 indicators of child well-being across five areas. Additionally, this year, five new indicators were added, including youth violence, disconnected youth, and chronic early absence.

The White House Childhood Obesity Task Force released its report and action plan aimed at solving the problem of childhood obesity within a generation. The May 11 report mentions afterschool in several places. The Task Force is part of the Let's Move campaign being led by First Lady Michelle Obama. 

New Child Trends Fact Sheets on Parent Involvement

Parents can play an important role in helping their children acquire or strengthen the behaviors and skills that promote physical and mental health and overall well-being. Two new fact sheets synthesize the findings from rigorous evaluations of parent involvement programs for youth ages 6-11 and 12-17. The authors identify the components and strategies associated with successful programs and also point to gaps in research, particularly the need to better recruit and engage parents.

Developing Exemplary Practices in Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Food Security in Afterschool Programs

While this comprehensive resource is California-based, it nonetheless offers excellent information on how an afterschool or summer learning program can enhance its nutrition policies and practices, thereby improving the health of children, youth, families, and staff.

Paths to 21^st Century Competencies through Civic Education Classrooms: An Analysis of Survey Results from Ninth-Graders

The executive summary of this report demonstrates that 21^st Century skills--which are beneficial to workforce success--can be taught. Ninth-grade students who took civics classes, characterized by a combination of lectures and interactive discussions on current events, outpaced their peers with no civics classes in the areas of media literacy, positive attitudes toward hard work and obeying the law, ability to work with others, and more.

Teen Voice 2009: The Untapped Strengths of 15-Year-Olds
This Search Institute study, which explores the importance of teen motivation and engagement in civic life, found that only seven percent (7%) of 15 year-olds in the U.S. experience a strong combination of three key factors critical to their success: “sparks,” “teen voice,” and “relationships and opportunities.” A very interesting study!

America After 3PM

Each afternoon across the U.S., 15 million children--more than a quarter of our children--are alone and unsupervised after school. The parents of 18 million would enroll their children in an afterschool program, if one were available. These are some key findings from America After 3PM, the nation's most in-depth study of how America's children spend their afternoons. The 2009 report, conducted for the Afterschool Alliance, surveyed nearly 30,000 households across the United States.

Assessing Bullying: A Guide for Out-of-School Time Program Practitioners

This research brief offers solid information on bullying issues, including a questionnaire to help measuring bullying, victimization, and pro-social behavior in afterschool programs as well as a handful of useful web resources.

How Program Administrators Can Support Out-Of-School Time Staff
Research on out-of-school time programs has found that effective program managers--referred to as facilitative administrators--promote high-quality implementation in multiple ways: by providing organizational leadership; selecting program staff; ensuring that staff receive training and supervision; and identifying and addressing implementation problems. This brief presents effective strategies for facilitative administration in out-of-school time programs.

The National AfterSchool Association's Code of Ethics is an important document for our field. It adheres to the highest standards of integrity and honesty in all public and personal activities to inspire public confidence and trust in the afterschool profession. 

Learning Around the Clock: Benefits of Expanded Learning Opportunities for Older Youth is a new publication funded by the C.S. Mott Foundation that profiles 22 high-quality programs that provide expanded learning opportunities (ELOs) for older youth. It provides evidence that ELOs improve academic performance, college and career preparation, social and emotional development, and health and wellness for youth. Essentially, the report shows how ELOs are an effective use of resources to prepare youth for postsecondary education, careers, and civic engagement, and the responsibilities of adulthood.

Significant Science Learning Happens Outside the Classroom

Is a trip to the zoo a luxury or an important learning opportunity? A new National Research Council report stresses that trips and TV documentaries can significantly contribute to scientific understanding. Such settings and programs may also support academic gains for young people from groups historically underrepresented in science.

Child Trends offers a trio of briefs on Selecting, Training, and Coaching Out-of-School Time Staff. Research on successful out-of-school time programs repeatedly has found that the caliber of a program's staff is a critical feature of high-quality programs that achieve positive outcomes. 

A Race Against the Clock: The Value of Expanded Learning Time for English-Language Learners
Expanded learning time, a schoolwide strategy that entails redesigning and lengthening the school day and/or year to help support teaching and learning for all students, can be particularly beneficial for English language learners. Current efforts to promote the expansion of learning time suggest increasing the school day by two hours or lengthening the year by 360 hours--the equivalent of at least 30 percent more learning time. This additional time can be pivotal in closing both the academic and language gap for ELLs. This report will examine the role that time plays in their education and learning, and how the expansion of learning time can be a key strategy in improving educational outcomes for ELLs.

Expanding Opportunities for After School Physical Activity 
This CANFIT-produced policy brief presents recommendations from the Youth Activity Policy (YAP) project funded by Kaiser Permanente, Northern California Regions Healthy Eating Active Living Initiative. It examines the neighborhood structures that are already serving youth and assesses how they might become engaged in community health initiatives that strengthen or expand physical activity opportunities for young people. Eight recommendations are outlined for this process.

Neighborhood Characteristics Can Help Reduce Obesity Rates

When it comes to helping reduce obesity rates, neighborhood parks, school playgrounds that are accessible on weekends and interactive communities all seem to promote exercise and help reduce the risk of obesity, according to this Rand research brief.

Social Chesiveness of Neighborhood Can Influence Children's Physical Activity
A community that has sidewalks, recreational facilities, and walk-to-school opportunities can help fight the rising rates of obesity among children. But a new study finds that even more important than the physical characteristics of a community are social factors--networks among parents, social cohesion, and neighbors' willingness to keep an eye on others' children.

Childhood Poverty, Chronic Stress, and Adult Working Memory