Executive Summary

The 2024-25 local evaluation report for the Kent Community Success program provides background on the 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) program and data on progress toward the program’s goals and objectives (program objectives are indicated in italic turquoise).

What is the Kent Community Success program?

The overarching goal of Kent Community Success, the 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) afterschool program in partnership with Kent School District, is to support students’ academic achievement and social emotional development. The Kent Community Success program completed its third 21st CCLC grant year in 2024-25. The program is located at Mill Creek Middle School, Neely-O’Brien Elementary School and River Ridge Elementary School and focuses on:

  • Meeting individual needs of students in reading, math, and social emotional learning (SEL)
  • Creating a sense of belonging and engagement in the 21st CCLC program
  • Strengthening family-school connection for families in the program
  • Supporting collaboration, voice, and choice of students, families, and partners

What does the program do?

The Kent Community Success program included summer (2024) and school year (2024-25) sessions.

  • Summer programming was held for 4-5 days per week
  • During the school year, all three sites offered before and after school programming, Monday through Thursday

The 21st CCLC Site Coordinators worked in each school to oversee staff and programming and developed partnerships to implement the program. Student activities included cooking, arts and crafts, sports, and STEM activities. Each site also offered several events for program participants and their families.  

Family engagement objective: All family events reflect interests of families in the program as measured on surveys and CBO input 

Sites used different approaches to gathering family input to inform family events. At two sites (Mill Creek and River Ridge), family event surveys provided family feedback on events, including what families liked, what could have been better, if they would like to have the event again in the following year, and what topics they are interested in for future family events. Additionally, site coordinators talked with families to hear their ideas and suggestions for programming and family events, such as community meetings at Neely O’Brien to gather family input to inform programming.

Community partnership objective: Each 21st CCLC program site will add one partnership each year that reflects the population(s) served at each school.

The program met this objective at two of three sites. River Ridge added three partners in 2024-25, Neely O’Brien added one, and Mill Creek did not add new partners but continued their 2023-24 partnerships.

Program quality objective: Measurable improvement in relevant sections of the SEL PQA each year, at each site; or an average rating over 4.0.

The Kent Community Success program utilizes the David P. Weikart Center’s Social and Emotional Learning Program Quality Assessment (SEL PQA) process to support program quality and improvement (known as Youth Program Quality Improvement, or YPQI). The program met the objective in Safe Space, but not in Supportive Environment, Interactive Environment, or Engaging Environment. The average score in Engaging Environment increased from 2023-24, decreased in Interactive Environment, and stayed the same for Safe Space and Supportive Environment.

Who does the program serve?

The program aims to create a sense of belonging and engagement for students in 21st CCLC program, with focus on students furthest from educational opportunity.

Student participation objectives:

  • 10% of total school population will regularly attend program (i.e., attend 30 days or more).
  • At least 60% of regular attendees will attend program for 60 days or more.
  • Data will not show differences in regular attendees or 60+ day attendees across race, ethnicity, or multi-lingual learner (MLL) groups.

In 2024-25, all sites increased student participation from 2023-24, though they did not meet the objective of 10% of total school population attending program regularly. All sites increased the percentage of participants who were regular attendees in 2024-25. For the whole program, the proportion of regular attendees increased from 18% in 2023-24 to 32% in 2024-25. Neely-O’Brien met the objective that at least 60% of regular attendees will attend program for 60 days or more (90%, or 27 of 30 regular attendees, attended 60 days or more).  When comparing regular attendees to the overall program at each site by race/ethnicity and MLL status, differences range from one percentage point to 13 percentage points.

Family participation objective: At least 75% of regular attendees will have a family member attend at least one family event.

At Mill Creek, 108 adult family members attended at least one event. At Neely-O’Brien, 14 adult family members attended at least one event, and at River Ridge, 25 adult family members attended at least one event. Current datasets on family event attendance are not specific to regular attendees.[1] 

What difference does the program make for students and families?

 Kent Community Success aims to meet the individual needs of students in the areas of math, reading, and social emotional learning.

Academic progress objective: 50% of regular attendees will demonstrate progress in math and reading.  

The program met this objective for reading. Fifty-five percent (55%) of regular attendees met typical growth in 2024-25. For math, when using the measure of students meeting typical growth in math, the program (as a whole) did not meet this objective in 2024-25. Forty-eight percent (48%) of regular attendees met typical growth. However, when considering student progress based on students’ relative math level, Neely-O’Brien and River Ridge met the objective for student progress improvement in math (at River Ridge, 58% of regular attendees improved their relative math level, and at Neely-O’Brien, 52% of regular attendees improved).

Classroom behavior objective: 50% of regular attendees will improve classroom behavior. 

The program far exceeded the objective in 2024-25. Between 88-93% of students had improved classroom behavior:[2]

  • 94% of participants improved in coming to school
  • 93% improved in their participation in learning activities
  • 88% improved in alertness and focus
  • 76% improved in staying focused

Family impact objective: Of families who participate in family events, 95% will rate the event positively on survey. 

Mill Creek and River Ridge used family event surveys to collect feedback from families, which was most positive related to families’ interest in offering identical or similar events in coming year, where both sites met the 95% benchmark. At Mill Creek, 96% of respondents (N=126) indicated they would like to see identical or similar events. At River Ridge, 95% of respondents (N=78) responded in this way. In other areas (e.g., events helping to connect families to their child(ren)’s school or education, helping them learn something new about their students’ school, equipping them with knowledge to support their students’ success), responses were largely positive, but did not meet the objective of 95% of respondents.

Strengths and Opportunities

In terms of strengths in 2024-25, all three sites demonstrated strengthening connections and relationships: with students, families, among students, and with school staff.  

  • With and among students: All three sites increased the percentage of participants who were regular attendees. For the whole Kent Community Success program, regular attendees increased from 18% of program participants in 2023-24 to 32% in 2024-25. Neely O’Brien had a significant increase from 2023-24 in the percentage of participants who were regular attendees (from 27% in 2023-24 to 100% in 2024-25). 
  • With families: Mill Creek had a variety of events with high attendance at most events, and 108 adult family members attended at least one event during the year. Mill Creek and River Ridge had high family satisfaction with events based on participant surveys, particularly related to event offerings.
  • With school staff: Mill Creek and River Ridge both had school-day staff who worked at afterschool program. Additionally, Neely O’Brien had a large number of volunteer staff – particularly during Summer 2024 programming – who included non-teaching school day staff, community members, parents, and subcontracted volunteer staff.  

All three sites focused on ensuring student and family safety this year, during the stress and uncertainty of increased immigration enforcement. This was reflected in each site’s mid-year program improvement goals.

Opportunities for improvement from the 2024-25 program year include: 

  • Developing community partnerships: One site added three new partners, one site added one new partner, and one site added no new partners. There may be an opportunity for site coordinators to collaborate and share ideas related to their process for identifying and securing new partnerships. At two sites, there were challenges related to staff from community partners and challenges given limitations of the site coordinators’ capacity. 
  • Focusing on Engaging Environment and Interactive Environment: All three sites identified items from the Engaging Environment domain (from the SEL PQA) in their program improvement goals. They demonstrated a small improvement in the average score from 2023-24 and can continue to strengthen their efforts in this area. The average score decreased in Interactive Environment, pointing to another potential area for attention.   

Expanding family events: All three sites offered fewer family events this year than in past years. In part, this was due to a pause of family events given concerns related to student and family safety (per Strengths, above). In the year ahead, programs can continue to offer events and prioritize gathering family feedback to inform these offerings.  

[1] Current datasets are not specific to regular attendees (this data is gathered through a centralized system as part of the statewide 21st CCLC evaluation).  As a result, the measure was adjusted to provide unduplicated counts for the total number of adults that attended at least one family event during the program year.

[2] This data is collected through a teacher survey, administered by OSPI’s statewide 21st CCLE evaluation, the American Institutes for Research (AIR). The teacher survey includes several questions about students’ classroom behavior. Note that the teacher survey is available to complete for program participants, not only regular attendees.