The Importance of Quality After-School Programs for Students of All Ages

Education, Lifelong Learner, Re-Blog Worthy

The Importance of Quality After-School Programs for Students of All Ages

Having quality after-school programs makes sense for all students: socially, emotionally, and economically.

November 2, 2023

4 minutes

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During the Coronavirus Pandemic, teachers, students, and parents were thrown into a new paradigm for learning. In theory, the content could be delivered fairly seamlessly via the digital world.

Melvin at Eliot Hine Middle School (201303010014HQ) by NASA HQ PHOTO is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0

Students from Bert Edwards Science & Technology School — Melvin at Eliot Hine Middle School (201303010014HQ) by NASA HQ PHOTO is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0

What The Pandemic Taught Us About The Importance of Education

Teachers made heroic efforts to meet the needs of students, but it became apparent very quickly how important teachers in classrooms were along with quality after-school programs.

I saw in my soccer class of 75 students how their grades and performance completely collapsed during the Pandemic. With their seasons, practices, and social events canceled, many players lost any and all motivation to do well in school.

My Experience With Pandemic Teaching

We saw academic performance drop by an average of 30% at my school. Sometimes lower test scores do not mean that much, but every teacher at my school noticed the decline in performance and basic skills.

California Test Performance and the Pandemic

California had to pass a law saying that students could graduate with fewer credits so that we did not have a backlog of non-graduates. More students had to go to continuation school than we had ever seen. New online credit recovery programs were instituted to try and bridge this gap.

Overall demand for afterschool programs in U.S.

Now in 2023, we have been back at school for 2+ years and we are just starting to undo the damage from the school shutdowns for a year and a half.

Post-Pandemic Teaching

Pandemic letter board game — COVID-19 vaccination, pandemic by U.S. Agency for International Development is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

COVID-19 vaccination, pandemic by U.S. Agency for International Development is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

Out of my 75 soccer players, I only have five who are not above a 2.0. Are the students better students in general than they were during the pandemic? I see no major noticeable difference in general abilities, the difference is the motivation.

The Importance of After School Programs

For a lot of my students, after-school programs keep students engaged and motivated. I work with a lot of at-risk students who do not have great family or financial support. Sometimes, they live in garages, entire families rent a room in an apartment, no one speaks English in their home, and playing soccer every day gives them what they need to keep going.

Chart showing the correlation of suspension to dropout rates for Black and Hispanic Males

Sadly, the trend these days is to give these programs less and less funding each year, at least in my area. Parents and families are asked to pay more for these programs despite rising demand for quality afterschool. Sports programs are now being asked to pay for the cost of busses out of the area, all tournament fees, uniforms, spirit wear, and more. An extra $100,000 per high school sports program or quality after-school program per school would be one of the best investments society could make.

Where Would We Get This Money?

stack of books beside a shopping cart with cash money — Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

pen on yellow and red board — Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

My proposal would be the prison system. It costs approximately $106,031 to lock one person in a prison for one year in California. Estimates range from 1.5 to 2 million Americans in prison in the United States. How do we prevent this from happening? There is nothing that will give more return on investment than quality after-school programs.

How Do We Keep Kids in School?

After-school programs consistently lower the dropout rate:

A comparison of youth who participated for four years and those who did not found that QOP students graduated from high school more often (63% vs. 42%), went on to postsecondary education more often (42% versus 16%), and dropped out of school less often (23% versus 50%) (Hahn, 1994).
DropoutPrevention.org

We are talking about saving almost 20% of kids from dropping out with quality after school programs.

Things to Consider and Discuss

What percentage of those dropouts turn to crime? The savings and productivity gains for society are huge with quality afterschool programs.

Demands Placed On Parents Are More Than Ever Before

Most households have two parents working also, so trying to pick up kids at 2:30 in the afternoon or 12:15 P.M. for every minimum day puts strain on families that could be avoided. Further, what are these children supposed to do with the rest of their day?

Conclusion: The Importance of Quality After-School Programs for Students of All Ages

In summation, I would like people to be aware of how strong the correlation is between after school programs and academic success. All the people who are incarcerated starting out as children, perhaps if they had better options and influences at a younger age, things would have been different for many of them.