According to a report by the Afterschool Alliance, there were 10.2 million attending after school programs. Such programs have shown to result in significantly higher test scores, improved day school attendance, and reduce criminal activity within the community.
Over time, you may find the need to enact changes to your after school program to improve attendance or simply to freshen the program. Change does not come readily to most people and implementing it in your program can present a challenge. We recently discussed methods for measuring success in your after school program, and now here are steps you can take to implement change more smoothly and with a more positive outcome. These changes may even lead to some much-appreciated cost reductions for your extended day program.
Start at the Top – Invest in Good Out of School Time Leadership
Change initiatives require leadership to shepherd the group through the change process while mitigating potential issues and keeping the initiative on track.
A good leader can help define a problem and determine a solution. People are more apt to help when there is a clearly defined problem and a resolution already planned. Articulation of a clear program mission and defining goals are skills required of a good leader in a changing environment.
Good leaders also promote a team culture with frequent communication and skillful problem solving regarding the staff. They ensure everyone has the appropriate resources and materials to accomplish their planned activities and trust the knowledge and skills of their staff in curriculum and instruction.
Staff receives professional development opportunities to uphold the success of the program and participate in problem-solving and program improvement. The best leaders have a bottom-up style that encourages everyone to work toward the best outcomes.
Hire and Retain Experienced Extended Day Staff
Staff members at successful after school programs are highly-educated and often remain with their programs for long periods of time, which allows them to relate well to the students and lead by example. The students find the best staff members engaging and motivating, while leaders, colleagues, and parents enjoy working with them.
Low turnover provides the consistency that is so important in the lives of the students.
Review and Assess the Current After School Program
If you are implementing change, you have likely noticed a need to do so. However, the more clearly you can identify the change and where to start, the better you can measure the outcome once the change is implemented.
You need to use the correct tools for assessing various components of the program and enlist the aid of older students, parents, teachers, administrators, site coordinators, program staff, and key community leaders as appropriate.
Seek clear data trends and identify the program’s strengths and weaknesses. Determine the areas that must be addressed immediately and those that require long-term solutions. Identify no more than three to five high priority needs to focus on during the school year.
Planning and Alignment
Before making changes, you must define the problem.
- Will you target students who receive free and reduced-price lunches?
- Are you seeking to assist students struggling with math?
- Do you need to handle kids with emotional and behavioral challenges?
Begin with an identifiable need and work from there. Develop rigorous goals and specific objectives for the change you are implementing, including the following:
- Who is responsible for carrying out specific activities
- A concrete timeline for completion
- The estimated costs as applicable
Write down your goals clearly, make sure they are adequately funded, and seek support across the program. Align the new initiatives with the curricular design and specific practices of the day school.
Implementation
Now that you are ready to implement your plans and drive toward the goals you have written, it is time to mobilize your team. Do not hesitate to ask for help; program changes require multiple people with a variety of skills.
Ask teachers, parents, and community members to serve on a committee. Draw in board members and the superintendent, if appropriate. If someone cannot serve on a committee, they may be able to offer valuable advice or guide you to resources of which you were not aware.
Above all, don’t give up. You need to be persistent to create change and make it stick. Provide the team with reminders of the goals toward which you are working, continue to communicate clearly and often, and celebrate significant milestones.
Evaluate the Outcome
If you don’t measure outcomes, you don’t know if your change was meaningful. Just as you formally identified and defined the problem, you set a benchmark before the change is implemented. You need to be able to measure from point to point to show whether you have made the improvement you expected.
Evaluations can be both internal (formative) and external (summative).
- Formative evaluations are performed by program staff. The key goal is the improvement of the program, and the evaluation can range from conversations with the staff and parents to formal surveys sent to students, parents, and staff from the administration. Other measures include tracking test scores, grades, and attendance.
- Summative evaluations generally have more consequence and are conducted by third-party evaluators. Often the goal of a summative evaluation is maintaining accreditation. Methods of evaluation include pre- and post-testing, comparison groups, surveys, focus groups, and observational assessments. For best results, a combination of methods should be employed.
Use the information and data to measure your progress toward goals accurately. Depending on the goal you can measure:
- School attendance improvement
- Frequency of class participation
- Effort on school work
- Reduction in disciplinary issues
- Increased matriculation rates
- Improved attention in class
Once you measure and assess the data, use the information to continue program improvements, implementing incremental change to increase the success of your after school program.
Change is not easy, but with good leadership and a collaborative staff, you can define specific problems to solve and identify goals to get you to the resolution. Implementation takes the cooperation of a broad variety of people in numerous roles, and once the change is in place, you need to measure your outcomes to determine whether you have achieved the change you sought.
Any change must include engagement from the bottom up. Include the students in defining problems or providing ideas for new activities. Ask the staff, teachers, parents, and community members to pitch in to make the change a reality.
Keep the lines of communication open and celebrate milestones as well as the achievement of your goals. Continue to measure using the appropriate tools to learn if you are on the right path.
Childcare management software can help you implement change by providing automated reports to use in benchmarking, enhancing communication with all stakeholders, and tracking metrics such as attendance and registration to provide data for evaluation purposes.
