Students who take part in high-quality before- and after-school programs show substantial improvement in academic achievement, school attendance, student engagement, and social and emotional development, a report concludes.
The report from the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers outlines seven strategies states can pursue to improve the quality of extended-learning opportunities, including identifying state and federal funding to support such programs, setting program standards, measuring the programs’ standards and results, and providing incentives to improve program quality.
In addition, states are urged to convene groups of key stakeholders who will develop, administer, and monitor before- and after-school programs, establish professional development for educators and workers in those programs, and target such opportunities to the children deemed most at risk.
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