Success For Each Child & Eliminate the Opportunity Gap by Leading with Racial Equity

Executive Summary

21st CCLC Program Background

The overarching goal of Kent Learning Together, the 21st CCLC afterschool program in partnership with Kent School District, is to support students’ academic achievement and social-emotional development. The program is located at East Hill Elementary School and Springbrook Elementary School and focuses on:

  • Increasing academic achievement
  • Improving attendance and behavior goals in the classroom
  • Strengthening family engagement
  • Providing high quality programming that prepares students for success.

Program Structure, Activities, and Community Partnerships

During the 2023-24 school year, East Hill and Springbrook offered programming during the Fall and semesters, that ran for 2-23 hours per day, four days a week over the course of 30-34 weeks. 21st CCLC Site Coordinators worked in each of the two schools to oversee staff and programming and develop partnerships to implement the program. The Kent School District served as the primary partner, Kent Parks and Recreation provided and facilitated recreational activities at both sites, and each site had additional partner organizations with which they worked. Student activities included academic supports, sports/fitness activities, arts/music, cultural/personal identity clubs, games, cooking and community services. Each site offered a variety of family activities for program participants and their families as well.

Program Implementation and Outputs

Students Served
The size of each of the two 21st CCLC program sites varies little, with 60 participants at East Hill and 68 participants at Springbrook. During the 2023-24 program year, East Hill enrolled 60 program participants during the program year, which is 15% of of the total school population (n=404). Springbrook met the objective for regular attendees, with a total of 68 program participants during the program year, which is 20% of the total school population (n=333).

Family Engagement
Programs offered a wide range of family events during the 2023-24 school year, to strengthen family-school connection for families in 21st CCLC program, with focus on families furthest from educational opportunity. Site Coordinators successfully integrated feedback into the family event opportunities they provide. At East Hill and Springbrook family events, attendees described a desire to have more games, spoken word activities, and holiday celebrations.

Community Partnerships
The program aims to develop relationships with a variety of community partners for the 21st CCLC program by adding one partnership each year at each school that reflects the population served at each school. During the 2023-24 year, each 21st CCLC site exceeded this objective. In addition to their initial partnership with each of the school sites through the Kent School District, each site was able to secure two external community partners. Partners shared at both sites are Kent Parks and Recreation and Brightspark.

Program Quality
The Cohort 19 21st CCLC programs utilize 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). This includes internal and external assessments, which Site Coordinators use to inform program quality improvement goals. The program’s measurable objective for program quality and the SEL PQA was to demonstrate “measurable improvement in relevant sections of the SEL PQA each year, at each site; or an average rating over 4.0.”

During the first year of the grant, 2023-24, the YPQI process includes self-observations and external observations with the SEL-PQA tool in the current year. Site Coordinators and site staff conducted self-observations, and the evaluator conducted external observations in January-February 2024. These observations provided a basis for sites’ improvement goals. The two school sites collectively scored 4.0 on “Safe Space”, 4.0 on “Supportive Environment”, 3.0 on “Interactive Environment” and 2.0 on “Engaging Environment”.

Impact for Students and Families

The program sought to positively impact both students and families in several ways, including meeting the students’ individual needs in the areas of math, reading, and social emotional learning, and strengthening family-school connection for families in 21st CCLC program, with focus on families furthest from educational opportunity.

Reading
The program’s goal was for 50% of regular attendees to demonstrate progress in reading. 81% of regular attendees (n=68) across both sites (East Hill and Springbrook) met typical growth standards or stretch growth goals for iReady reading, as defined by the Kent School District.

  • East Hill students met typical growth at 55% (n=11), stretch at 33% (n=6).
  • Springbrook students met typical growth at 54% (n=27), stretch at 22% (n=11).

Math
The program’s goal was for 50% of regular attendees to demonstrate progress in math. 62% of regular attendees (n=66) across both sites (East Hill and Springbrook) met typical growth standards or stretch growth goals for iReady math, as defined by the Kent School District.

  • East Hill students met typical growth at 39% (n=7), stretch at 22% (n=4).
  • Springbrook students met typical growth at 44% (n=21), stretch at 19% (n=9).

Classroom Behavior
Cohort 19 established a goal for the program year 2023-24 of measuring improved classroom behavior for regular attendees by 50%. While the goal was specific to regular attendees, the teacher survey included all youth attending program and was not specific to regular attendees. Springbrook met the classroom behavior goal across all areas: 81% of students demonstrated progress on youth coming to school (n=27), 73% improved in alertness and focus (n=31), 71% improved on participation in learning activities (n=31), and 58% improved on staying focused (n=31). (Survey data were not collected for East Hill participants.)

Impact for Families
During the 2023-24 school year, East Hill and Springbrook used family event surveys to collect feedback on the following topics: overall satisfaction with the event, how the event helped the parent/family member feel connected to their child and the larger school/community.

  • At East Hill, 100% of families (n=12) felt that family events helped them feel connected to their child’s education.
  • At Springbrook, 93% of family respondents (n=14) indicated that family events helped them feel connected to their child’s education, and that they would like to have events given in the future.

Strengths and Opportunities

Program strengths from the 2023-24 school year included:

  • Accessibility and responsiveness of 21st CCLC programs: Systems and organizational practices helped support each 21st CCLC site’s ability to provide students with support through programming.
  • Partnerships: While both sites shared the same primary partnership with the Kent School District, each of the sites also established connections with several community-based organizations. Each of these partnerships represented opportunities and access to a variety of resources and experiences for 21st CCLC participants.
  • Regular Attendance: Springbrook successfully met the objective for the proportion of students enrolled or proportion of regular attendees among program participants, including that 84% of regular attendees at Springbrook attended program for 60 or more days.
  • Student Activities: The range of activities provided to students through 21st CCLC programming demonstrates a commitment to student interest.

Opportunities for improvement from the 2023-24 school year included:

  • Operations: There were some operational challenges that each of the sites navigated during the first year of the grant. Site Coordinators began developing partnerships with community organizations and establishing roles and responsibilities, and community partner meetings continued to be under development. At East Hill, hiring staff was difficult at the beginning of the school year, but stabilized throughout the year.
  • Regular Attendance: As regular attendance continues to be a primary goal of the 21st CCLC program, data from the 2023-24 school indicate that this will continue to be a primary effort over the next school year at East Hill.
  • Family Events and Community Engagement: Both sites would benefit from engaging with families to learn more about their interests and hopes for the program.