Illinois After-school Partnership

After-school Research & Data

On this page, the Partnership provides information on research and data related to after-school in Illinois, and links to research on after-school in general. If you have information to be included on this page, you can click here to let us know.

Illinois Research and Data

Illinois After-school Partnership’s Out-of-School Time Workforce Survey The Partnership has just released its report on its survey of nearly 300 Out-of-School Time workers in Illinois. The Executive Summary and full report are now available for download. These findings are being used to shape statewide recommendations to support the development of the workforce which will be disseminated broadly to educate program directors, professional development providers, policy makers and the field at large. If you are interested in further details about the data, please e-mail the Partnership Director to make your request.
Voices and Choices: Illinois Youth Work Professionals Discuss Opportunities, Challenges and Options for the Profession. This report comes from focus groups conducted by the Partnership in 8 communities around the state, in collaboration with the Forum for Youth Investment on behalf of the Next Generation Youth Work Coalition. The report discusses themes that emerged from the focus groups, and highlights front-line workers' perspectives on the field of youth work and out-of-school time.
Data Supporting the Need for After-school Services in Illinois. This document provides data on children 6 - 17 with working parents, and indicators on risk factors such as academic achievement, teen pregnancy and juvenile delinquency. This data is broken down by county and can be used to illustrate the need for after-school at a statewide and local level. This report was developed by the Evaluation Resource Institute of the Illinois Center for Violence Prevention, using data compiled by researchers at the Center for Prevention Research and Development at the University of Illinois.
Directory of Opportunities for Our Children During the Non-School Hours The Illinois After-school Partnership is pleased to provide you this valuable resource directory of opportunities for children during the non-school hours. The Directory is a searchable tool for youth, parents, providers and others that are looking for program opportunities for children and youth in Illinois. For more information on this directory, click here.
Child Care Data:The Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies collects, data related to childcare supply and demand across the state of Illinois. The Data & Research Department of INCCRRA can respond to specific request for data. To find out more about making a data request, go to http://ilchildcare.org/parentsandpublic/data.htm.
The Center for Prevention Research and Development has conducted program evaluations for the Teen REACH program as well as for individual 21st Century Community Learning Centers in Illinois. To download results from these evaluations, as well as view other valuable research conducted by CPRD on out-of-school time and related prevention initiatives, go to: http://www.cprd.uiuc.edu/research/highrisk-pubs.htm
Corporate Voices for Corporate Families has issued a report entitled Corporate Investments in Afterschool, highlighting the private sector's growing involvement in the issues affecting the lives of working families. The report addresses the need for continued corporate responsibility and involvement in local afterschool program funding and in-kind donations both by the private sector and the by our elected officials. To download the full report, please visit:
http://www.cvworkingfamilies.org/Afterschool/corporate%20investment%20in%20afterschool.pdf
To learn more about Corporate Voices for Working Families please visit http://www.cvworkingfamilies.org/.

Recent Research and Reports

Growing the Next Generation of Youth Professionals: Workforce Opportunities and Challenges. This is a report of the Next Generation Youth Work Coalition prepared by Nicole Yohalem, Karen Pittman, and David Moore of The Forum for Youth Investment on behalf of Cornerstones for Kids. This report summarizes a number of data-gathering efforts from cities around the country to answer the questions 1) what does the workforce look like?, 2)how and to what extent are professionals supported in the workplace? And 3) what could be done to improve the employment experiences of youth work professionals and the stability of the workforce overall?. The focus groups conducted by the Partnership were a part of this project and data gathered from those groups are reflected in this report. Click Here to download the report.

Hours That Count: This report, published by TASC and the Hamilton Fish Institute, shares strategies for keeping kids in after-school safe. Read about how programs help prevent risky behavior.

The Afterschool Aliiance's e-newletter, afterschool.now, (vol. 3 no. 4, Dec. 30th, 2005) reported the following: A new afterschool evaluation from researchers at Yale and New York University (NYU) concludes that students in afterschool programs, particularly those who were "highly engaged" in their programs, had significantly higher reading achievement and expectations of academic success than other students. The report can be found at http://pantheon.yale.edu/~jlm79/

The National Institute on Out-of-Schoot Time (NIOST) at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College and the Intercultural Center for Research in Education have released the report "Pathways to Success for Youth: What counts in after-school". This Massachusetts Afterschool Research Study (MARS) looks at what program elements affect positive outcomes for youth. Visit wcwonline.org/mars/ to view the MARS Executive Summary and Full Report.

Related Links for Research and Data for After-school

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Fight Crime: Invest In Kids is a national bipartisan, nonprofit anti-crime organization led by more than 2,500 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, victims of violence and leaders of police officer associations. They have several reports that provide data related to children and youth. One report commonly cited in regards to the need for afterschool is “America's After-School Choice: The Prime Time for Juvenile Crime or Youth Enrichment and Achievement”. Reports such as this from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids can be downloaded from http://www.fightcrime.org/reports.php

Afterschool Alliance The Afterschool Alliance is a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of afterschool programs and advocating for quality, affordable programs for all children. It is supported by a group of public, private and nonprofit organizations that share the Alliance's vision of ensuring that all children have access to afterschool programs by 2010. Their website includes a research page that has various reports and data on afterschool, and a very useful research links page that highlights key studies on afterschool across the country. http://afterschoolalliance.org/research.cfm

Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) HFRP hosts an Out-of-school time evaluation database, and has multiple reports that provide information on out-of-school time programs. http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/pubs/pubslist.html#ost · National Institute on Out-of-school Time (NIOST): The NIOST website includes a list of publications that includes several areas of research related to out-of-school time., including “Making the Case: A Fact Sheet on Children and Youth in Out-of-School Time”, “It's About Time: A Look at Out-of-School Time for Urban Teens”, “Using Technology to Support Academic Achievement for At-Risk Teens During Out-of-School Time”, and “How Afterschool Programs Can Most Effectively Promote Positive Youth Development as a Support to Academic Achievement” to name a few. http://www.niost.org/publications/index.html

National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies This website has national child care data, which uses data from the state’s child care resource and referral systems. http://www.naccrra.net/data/

William T. Grant Foundation/Forum for Youth Investment The William T. Grant Foundation has a document “Recent Publications Related to Out-of-School Time” produced by the Forum for Youth Investment available for download on their website. This resource lists recent reports and articles that contain data and information on out-of-school time. Go to http://www.wtgrantfoundation.org/info-url_nocat3040/info-url_nocat_show.htm?doc_id=311043 to download this resource.

Child Trends is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to improving the lives of children by conducting research and providing science-based information to improve the decisions, programs, and policies that affect children and their families. The website includes a searchable database of their research. Child Trends also publishes an e-newsletter. www.childtrends.org

American Youth Policy Forum provides information on learning opportunities for policymakers working on youth issues at the local, state, and national levels. They have several publications relating to out-of-school time at http://www.aypf.org/publications/index.htm

Public/Private Ventures is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the effectiveness of social policies, programs and community initiatives, especially as they affect youth and young adults. Their website has several research related resources on topic concerning youth and a page dedicate to after-school research. http://www.ppv.org/ppv/youth/youth.asp

The Wallace Foundation is a leading foundation in developing enriching learning opportunities during out-of-school hours. Their website has a section dedicated to recent studies and leanring in out-of-school time. http://www.wallacefoundation.org/WF/KnowledgeCenter/KnowledgeTopics/Out-Of-SchoolLearning/

Disclaimer: Links to external websites and resources are provided for convenience and information only. The Illinois After-school Partnership assumes no responsibility for their content and does not endorse these resources, websites or their organizations