Book Description

This evaluation study provides information about the implementation and outcomes of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) program in West Virginia, from September 2014 through May 2015. The report draws on information from online surveys of 23 directors of 21st CCLC programs and from school teachers for 929 of the 11,299 participating students. It also draws on West Virginia General Summative Assessment (WVGSA) scores provided by the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) for students who participated in a 21st CCLC program for at least 30 days (1,864), and a matching group of 1,864 nonparticipants used as a control. The students were grouped by grade level and compared in mathematics and English/language arts (ELA) using scale score means for Grades 4-11. Most participating students were in the elementary grades. The mean number of days students attended ranged from about 2 to 108 days, depending on the program. Teachers perceived the greatest improvements in participating students' behaviors related to turning in homework on time, participating in class, completing homework to teachers' satisfaction, and academic performance. Regarding 21st CCLC program volunteers, the largest sources were K-12 service learning programs (36.8%), parents (20.2%), and higher education service learning programs (14.8%). The groups with which program directors reported the greatest level of success were higher education service learning programs (3.8 on a 4.0 scale), community organizations (3.6 of 4.0), and K-12 service learning programs (3.6 of 4.0). Regarding work with partners, the most frequent types of support received were program resources (28.2%), programming (22.1%), and joint planning (18.0%). With the exception of a few activities, all program directors who had engaged in the various partnership activities considered them to be effective. Program directors said they needed more professional development in program sustainability, more technical assistance in program evaluation, and more information resources in STEM/STEAM. As for parent and community involvement, more than 60% of program directors indicated they either had no family component or they had only slight success in their efforts to involve parents/guardians or other adult community members. In responses to open-ended questions, program directors indicated programs for students and better student attendance/participation were the most successful. The program directors felt the greatest challenges were personnel issues, parent engagement and support, and funding and sustainability. Program directors were asked to make recommendations for how to improve the program for the future. Most program directors who commented wrote about redundancies in reporting, the hard-to-use WVEIS 21st CCLC data collection interface, and the inability to utilize data entered. The quasi-experimental study in mathematics using scale score means for Grades 4-11 showed the observed differences were not statistically significant. The quasi-experimental study in ELA using scale score means for Grades 4-11 also showed that the observed differences were not statistically significant. The following are appended: (1) Detailed Description of Study Methods; (2) Survey Questionnaires; and (3) Informed Consent Forms. [For the 2013-2014 report, see ED569701.].