The
Charles Stewart
Mott Foundation in Flint, Michigan, has awarded a four-year,
$3.6 million grant to the
University of
Wisconsin-Madison to study the impacts and best practices of
afterschool programs, particularly those that focus on
underserved populations.
The university's
Wisconsin Center for Education Research and D.C.-based
Policy
Studies Associates will conduct a study on the effects of
best practices among afterschool programs. Specifically, the
study will seek to identify the characteristics of afterschool
programs that have been in operation for at least three years
and have improved participants' academic performance and
emotional well being.
This is the second
major grant awarded by Mott to fund evaluations of afterschool
programs. In 1998, the foundation joined the
U.S. Department of
Education to launch the 21st Century Community Learning
Centers initiative, which currently supports 7,500 rural and
urban schools in 1,400 communities in their efforts to provide
quality afterschool programming for children and youth as well
as lifelong learning opportunities for family and community
members. The foundation's seven-year, $100 million commitment to
the 21st CCLC initiative includes support for training,
evaluation, and building public will for afterschool programs.
"Such evaluations
offer an important opportunity to learn what works in a quality
afterschool program, to bring those strategies to new projects,
and to use them to improve existing programs," said Mott
Foundation president William S. White. "For the more than 11
million young people growing up in poverty in the United States,
educational opportunities — including afterschool programs —
represent a crucial step toward future success."
“Mott Foundation
Grant Supports Continued Evaluation of Quality Afterschool
Programs.” Charles Stewart Mott Foundation Press Release
2/07/03.
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