Effective literacy and mathematics instruction, better student achievement: An evaluative study of after -school programming

American educators face a daunting challenge in educating students during this era of standards and accountability as state and federal authorities demand more test data on children\u27s progress. This headlong rush into annual testing puts pressure on both ends of the educational process--on the way teachers teach and prepare students for standardized tests, and on the way educational leaders interpret and utilize test results. This study looks at both ends of the tunnel, analyzing the effects of more time on task brought about by after-school academic programs and the impact of these extra hours on student progress examined by using the value-added method (Sanders 1998, 2003; Sanders & Rivers, 1996). As states have followed federal mandates to create measurable standards and assessments with accountability measures, districts and schools have been scrambling to meet the needs of all students within the confines of the regular school day. Therefore, many schools have implemented after-school programs to augment the learning time required to meet the ever-increasing demands of standards and accountability. This study, exploring both ends of the accountability continuum, will compare progress for after-school and non-after-school students in a large mixed district, controlling for socioeconomic status (SES) and race of the students. To what degree do children with an extra hour daily in the fall for literacy and another hour of mathematics in the spring do better on state assessments? In this study, third grade TerraNova (CTB McGraw-Hill, 1997) Reading, Language Arts, and Math scores and fourth grade New York State English Language Arts and Mathematics scores will be analyzed to measure the effects of after-school programming on student achievement