Executive Summary

The 2024-25 local evaluation report for the Kent Learning Together 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 Learning Together program?

The overarching goal of Kent Learning Together, 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 Learning Together program completed its second 21st CCLC grant year in 2024-25. The program is located at East Hill Elementary School and Springbrook Elementary School and focuses on:

  • Supporting student progress in math, reading, and social emotional learning
  • Supporting regular (program) attendance and a sense of belonging and engagement among participants
  • Strengthening family engagement
  • Providing high quality programming that prepares students for success

What does the program do?

East Hill and Springbrook offered programming during summer and school year sessions.

  • Summer (2024) programming was held for four weeks, four days per week
  • School year programming included two hours of afterschool programming, four days per week. East Hill also had one hour of before-school programming.

The 21st CCLC Site Coordinators at each school oversaw staff and programming and developed partnerships to implement the program. Student activities included academic support, sports/fitness activities, and visual and performing arts. Each site also offered several family events.

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

Both sites met the partnership objective. They worked with Seattle Universal Math Museum as a new partner, and continued partnerships with Kent School District, Kent Parks and Recreation, and Brightspark. Springbrook worked with three additional partners specific to that site (Washington Alliance for Better Schools, Triple Impact Coaching, and The STRONG Experience).

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 Learning Together 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 of an average rating of 4.0 or greater in Safe Space, and did not meet the objective for Supportive Environment, Interactive Environment, and Engaging Environment. Average scores in Safe Space and Engaging Environment increased from 2023-24 and decreased in Supportive Environment and Interactive 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 each school’s total population regularly attend the program (i.e., attend 30 days or more)
  • At least 60% of regular attendees attend the 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, both sites increased overall participants from 2023-24 and met the objectives for regular attendees:

  • At East Hill, 47 students (12% of the school’s total population) attended 30 days or more. 77% (36 of 47) of regular attendees attended program for 60 or more days. 
  • At Springbrook, 70 students (20% of the school’s population) were regular attendees. 77% (54 of 70) of regular attendees attended program for 60 or more days.

Each site served a diverse range of students, and when comparing regular attendees to the overall program at each site by race/ethnicity and MLL status, proportions are relatively similar for all groups (differences of five percentage points or less).

Family participation objective: 75% of regular attendees will have a family member attend at least one family event, with no disparity in family participation as a function of race, ethnicity, or MLL status. 

At East Hill, 31 adult family members (of all participants) attended at least one event. At Springbrook, 30 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 Learning Together 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 Kent Learning Together program met this objective for reading. Sixty percent (60%) of regular attendees met typical growth for reading in 2024-25. The program (as a whole) did not meet this objective for math based on meeting typical growth. Forty-six percent (46%) of regular attendees met typical growth in math in 2024-25. At Springbrook, 62% of regular attendees met typical growth. At East Hill, 27% of regular attendees did.

However, when considering student progress based on relative math level, the program met the objective for student improvement in math: 59% of all regular attendees (across both sites) improved, including 56% of regular attendees at East Hill and 62% at Springbrook.

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

The program met this objective. Between 71-91% of Kent Learning Together participants improved their classroom behavior:[2]

  • 91% of participants improved in their participation in learning activities
  • 88% improved in coming to school
  • 77% improved in staying focused
  • 71% improved in alertness and focus

Social emotional learning objective: 50% of regular attendees will indicate positive social emotional experiences.

There were two areas where more than 50% of participants indicated positive experiences with the afterschool program. Across both sites (N=33), 55% of youth survey respondents indicated that the program helped them make new friends. At East Hill (N=11), 64% of youth survey respondents also indicated that the program helped them find out what they are good at doing.

There are a range of other social emotional experiences where fewer than half of youth respondents noted the program helped them, including: to feel good about myself (45%); with my confidence (30%); to discover things I want to learn more about (15%); to learn things that will help me in school(6%);  and to think about the kinds of classes I want to take in the future (3%).

Kent Learning Together aims to strengthen family-school connections for families in the 21st CCLC program, with focus on families furthest from educational opportunity.

Family impact objective: Of families who participate in family events, 95% will rate the event positively and feel more connected to their school.

Family event survey results were most positive related to families’ interest in offering identical or similar events in coming years. Both sites exceeded the 95% benchmark for participant satisfaction based on this question (East Hill: 100% of respondents (N=21) and Springbrook: 96% of respondents (N=52)). 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

Strengths from the 2024-25 program year include strengthening connections and relationships with students, school leaders, and community partners:

  • With students: Compared to 2023-24, both sites served more students in 2024-25, had a higher proportion of participants who were regular attendees, and met objectives related to regular attendees
  • With school leaders and staff: The program at Springbrook maintained their strong partnership with school leaders, and collaboration with the principal at East Hill deepened, with more regular meetings and communication compared to the first year of the grant. East Hill worked closely with staff and families to implement the school’s behavior policy.
  • With community partners: Both sites added a new community partner this year. Community partners supported expanded program offerings for students.

Both sites focused on ensuring student safety and providing support and resources to families during the stress and uncertainty of increased immigration enforcement.

Opportunities for improvement include:

  • Staffing: Both sites experienced staffing challenges during 2024-25, including staff retention, turnover, and absences, and a need for more experienced staff.
  • Family events: At Springbrook, there is an opportunity to build on the strong connections with students, families, and school staff they have built through their program to collaborate more closely on family events. Both sites can increase family feedback and input by collecting more family event surveys.          

[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) or demographic data (race, ethnicity, or MLL status) about families.  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.