Welcome from the Managing Editor of Afterschool Matters, Fall 2020
By Georgia Hall
Afterschool Matters Fall 2020
Social and Emotional Learning in Afterschool Settings
Equity Evaluations, Recommendations, and Critiques
By Veronica Benavides, Shakirra Meghjee, Tasha Johnson, Aasha Joshi, Christine Ortiz, and Victor Rivera
Social and emotional learning (SEL) has proven to be an effective conduit to improved attendance scores, grades, and graduation rates; to adaptive behaviors and gainful employment in adulthood; and to a wide variety of other measurable factors spanning the spectrum of human adaptiveness and wellness (Aspen Institute, 2018).
Teacher, Researcher, Designer
Science Museum Internships Expand What Counts as STEM
By Carrie D. Allen
The well-documented underrepresentation of women and people of color in science fields (Ong et al., 2011) remains persistent in the United States (National Science Foundation, 2018). A growing body of research suggests that a contributing factor is the ways in which K–12 learning environments recapitulate constrained notions of what it means to participate in and be “good at” science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Digital Badges Forging Connections Between Informal and Higher Education
By Wendy Martin, Jaime Gutierrez, and Maggie Muldoon
Many high-quality out-of-school-time (OST) programs enable youth from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to gain skills and knowledge in science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM, Afterschool Alliance, 2015; National Research Council, 2011); engage in authentic practices that relate to their own interests; and connect with their peers and their own cultures (Bell et al., 2009; Ito et al., 2013).
Balancing Acts
Managing the Tensions Inherent in Long-Term Youth-Led Projects
By Suzanne Eyerman and Sarah Hug
"The girls were really invested in the long-term projects; they liked working on it. It was hard that, for some of them, they didn’t get finished. It was hard, but you work on growth mindset, and you work on helping them thinking about [the community impact project] as a prototype."
From Downtime to Prime Time
A Funder’s Role in Enhancing Summer Learning
By Judith W. McBride and Anita M. Baker
On a cold winter’s day, staff who oversee summer program funding from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving in Connecticut open a learning community session for the 42 nonprofits that operated summer programs with its support last summer. “It’s a great time to think summer again and begin the early planning that gets us ready to respond to the needs and interests of children, youth, and their families this summer!” An early start is critical to effective summer planning (Schwartz et al., 2018).
Monitoring the Experiences of OST Volunteers
The Mixed-Method, Open-Ended Volunteer Experiences (MOVE)
By Taylor L. Crisman, Ignacio D. Acevedo-Polakovich, Lucas A. Al-Zoughbi, Sara T. Stacy, Sarah E. Ogdie, & Sam Obeid
In many applied youth development settings, including out-of-school time (OST) programs, volunteers play essential roles (Brennan, 2005). In some, volunteers are integral to service delivery—for example, serving as mentors. In others, volunteers help link youth-serving organizations or their participants with needed resources, assets, or opportunities (Brennan, 2007).
Teens in a Digital Desert
Digital Media Literacy in an Arizona OST Program
By Andrew Bernier and Rick H. Fowler
The education landscape, both in and out of school, has shifted dramatically, during the COVID-19 pandemic, to digital learning. This shift has compounded the need for digital media literacy, a wide-ranging and often-changing concept that encompasses the competence to use technical equipment, intelligently consume and process information, and create and share digital media (Heitin, 2016). Even as young people spend more hours in front of a screen than before, they are subjected to more media applications and outlets, from podcasts to videos, pictures, and infographics. These diverse media options are a rich digital landscape for youth to navigate and to which they can potentially contribute.
Group Mentoring and Identity Formation for Young Men of Color
A Case Study
By Kevin Pribnow
America’s schools are re-segregating at an alarming rate (Kozol, 2005; Stancil, 2018). Over the past 40 years, many metropolitan communities have reversed progress made toward integration following the 1954 Brown decision. The number of schools where less than 40 percent of students are White has almost doubled between 1996 and 2016, according to the National Center on Educational Statistics (Stancil, 2018).
