&quot;ELO Design Challenge&quot;: Final Evaluation Report, 2017-2019
Author: Smith, Michelle C. Howell
Date: 2019-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Educational Quality,After School Programs,Summer Programs,Attendance,Academic Achievement,Grades (Scholastic),Low Income Groups,Enrichment Activities,Educational Finance,State Departments of Education,Grants,Program Descriptions,Program Evaluation,Partnerships in Education,Access to Education,Elementary School Students,Middle School Students,Kindergarten,Student Projects,Active Learning,Educational Opportunities

High-quality afterschool and summer programming serve an important role in Nebraska communities. They engage students emotionally, intellectually, and socially (National Research Council, 2015). They provide safe and caring supervision for children who might otherwise be unsupervised outside of school hours, they also discourage negative behaviors, such as aggression and drug and alcohol use (Vandell, Reisner, &amp; Pierce, 2007). They also present an opportunity to reinforce and enrich school day learning, hence, afterschool and summer programming have the potential to help students meet their academic goals. Research has shown that students in afterschool programs attend school more often, get better grades and test scores, make gains in reading and math, and improve their work habits and classroom behavior (Afterschool Alliance, 2014). The need for these types of programs is even more profound for students from low income families who typically lose two to three months in reading achievement and two months of math skills during the summer months (Alexander, Entwisle, &amp; Steffel Olson, 2007). Yet despite these benefits, only 18% of Nebraska children participate in an afterschool program and only 19% of Nebraska families indicate that at least one child attended a summer enrichment program, although the demand for such programs is higher than our state's current capacity (Afterschool Alliance, 2014). Beatrice Public Schools received funding from the Nebraska Department of Education's Innovation Grant Phase I Developmental Grant fund to support an Expanded Learning Opportunity Design Challenge (&quot;ELO Design Challenge&quot;). The project is led by Beyond School Bells (BSB), statewide public-private partnership within the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation, with support from Nebraska Extension, educational advocates, and community stakeholders. The &quot;ELO Design Challenge&quot; is a statewide partnership to not only begin to close the gap between the demand for and access to high-quality afterschool and summer programing by creating five new programs in Nebraska communities, but also to serve as a prototype that would allow other Nebraska communities to develop economically viable models of summer and afterschool programming supporting K-8 students and school success. The long-term goal of the &quot;ELO Design Challenge&quot; is the creation of new models of ELO programming and enhancement of existing programs by providing K-8 students across Nebraska with additional hands-on, project-based learning opportunities enhancing student success. This report is an evaluation of the program. [The Nebraska Academy for Methodology, Analytics and Psychometrics (MAP Academy), housed at the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Students, Families, and Schools (CYFS) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, conducted the independent evaluation.]