Out-of-School Time in Elev8 Community Schools

A solid, high-quality education is a key to successful adulthood; however, young people from low-income families and communities often face a myriad of educational and academic challenges that put them at risk for ongoing disadvantage in life. The Atlantic Philanthropies and others support community schools to respond to this educational crisis.

By partnering with local agencies, community schools are providing students and families with access to health-care services, educational enhancement and recreational opportunities, and other supports like educational advocacy activities, leadership opportunities and others, to increase student outcomes and overall quality of life.

Atlantic-supported Elev8 schools aim to guide middle school students through the steps necessary to prepare, plan for and attend quality high schools through various activities during the school day and by bolstering these school-wide activities during out-of-school time (OST) programming.

This evaluation takes a preliminary look inside the Elev8 community schools to provide the field with information about the relative value of OST within this educational model.

Key Findings

About 40 per cent of Elev8 students participated in Elev8 out-of-school time activities at least once in the 2010-2011 school year. Key findings about the participants versus those who opted not to participate include:

• They were more likely to be African American and in younger middle school grades
• Elev8 students had positive attitudes toward school
• Eighth-grade students who attended more frequently were significantly more likely to participate in a wide range of high-school planning activities
• Frequent participants were more likely to report that they planned to attend a college-preparatory high school.

As Elev8 and other community schools strive to meet their central goal of preparing students for high school, OST activities may be a promising context to help inform students about their high school options and planning activities.

Atlantic commissioned this study.