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AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAMS TO PROMOTE CHILD AND ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT: SUMMARY OF A WORKSHOP
after-school programs. This workshop was planned to coincide with the release of the Packard Foundation’s fall 1999 issue of The Future of Children, entitled “When School Is Out.”
To create a framework for workshop discussions, presenters were asked to address the following questions:
What are the developmental needs, challenges, and opportunities of children and adolescents ages 5 to 14?
What types of after-school programs are most likely to address those needs?
What are the components of high-quality after-school programs?
What are the different models of after-school programs?
What are the challenges in evaluating these programs?
What should the next generation of research, policy, and design of after-school programs look like?
This report summarizes the presentations and discussion that took place at the workshop. It is not intended to provide a complete review of the literature on adolescent development or after-school program evaluation literature or to be an overview of all of the different types of after-school programs. Rather, the report should be seen as a reflection of ideas expressed by workshop presenters and participants that may lead to continued and enhanced support of existing programs, new program models, additional and different research, and more collaboration among researchers, policy makers, and practitioners.
Given the limitations of both time and scope, this workshop could not address a variety of issues that are certainly important when considering how children and adolescents spend their after-school hours. There was no discussion about substantive evaluation findings that specifically demonstrate the tangible impact of after-school programs on children and adolescents. The workshop also did not examine the full range of after-school programs that exist, review the evaluation and research literature on after-school programs, nor the theory on which after-school programs are designed. Workshop participants acknowledged the importance of afterschool programs in providing opportunities for developing cross-cultural and intercultural skills, as well as the importance of staffing programs with individuals who are sensitive to issues of diversity. However, the workshop highlighted only the general developmental needs of children and adoles-
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