A project of the Afterschool Alliance.

Advancing Achievement: Findings from an Independent Evaluation of a Major After-School Initiative

Year Published: 2008

This Public/Private Ventures evaluation studied the Communities Organizing Resources to Advance Learning (CORAL) project, an eight-year, $58 million afterschool initiative in cities across California designed by the James Irvine Foundation aimed at providing academic enrichment and support to primarily elementary school students in the lowest performing schools, who are often living in low-income families. The evaluation found that students participating in the CORAL program, a majority of whom were English language learners and reading below grade level, saw literacy-related gains. CORAL participants who were English language learners and those who were furthest behind in reading experienced greater gains in their reading performance while in the program compared to their peers who entered the program reading at grade level or who were English proficient. Children who began the CORAL program two or more grade levels behind in reading, based on the individualized reading assessments, gained just as much as their higher-achieving counterparts over the same period of time. The study also found that CORAL students reported having a positive experience in the program. Close to 90 percent of CORAL students reported that they felt safe in the program, and 71 percent agreed that they felt that they belonged in the program. Parents of students in the program also reported a positive experience for their children, with more than 90 percent of parents reporting that the program helped their child to do better in school.

Program Name: Communities Organizing Resources to Advance Learning (CORAL)

Program Description: CORAL, which ended in 2006, was an afterschool initiative across five cities in the state of California. The program had an academic focus, offering enrichment activities and homework help, but academic outcomes varied greatly across the cities through the 2003-04 academic year. To improve the consistency of high-quality programming, CORAL implemented new literacy programming in the fall of 2004. Students participated in a variety of literacy activities three to four days per week, for 60 to 90 minutes each day, including: reading aloud, book discussions, writing activities, vocabulary activities, skill-development activities, and independent reading. At the time of this evaluation, statewide enrollment was 5,321, ranging from 585 to 2,081 across the cities.

Scope of the Evaluation: Multi-city

Program Type: Afterschool

Location: Fresno, Long Beach, Pasadena, Sacramento, & San Jose, CA

Community Type: Urban

Grade level: Elementary School

Program Demographics: CORAL participants were a very diverse group. More than half of the participants were English language learners (53 percent), 89 percent received free or reduced-price lunch, and 51 percent were girls. Sixty-eight percent of participants were Hispanic, 14 percent were African-American, 10 percent were Asian, four percent were multi-racial, three percent were Caucasian, and one percent identified as “other.”

Evaluator: Arbreton, A., Bradshaw, M., Goldsmith, J., Jucovy L., Pepper, S., & Sheldon, J. Public/Private Venture.

Evaluation Methods: Data for this evaluation was collected over the course of 21 months, from October 2004 to June 2006. Data collection techniques included qualitative and quantitative research methods: standardized test scores; in-program testing; interviews with CORAL staff, collaborating partners and school staff per city; site observations; focus groups with parents; and surveys of CORAL site, lead organization staff, parents, and youth participants. The study did not gather data on a comparison group of nonparticipants, but did look at the impacts of varying levels of participation.

Evaluation Type: Non-experimental

Summary of Outcomes: The study found that CORAL participants overall saw gains in their reading performance. Students made small, but significant gains in their grade level reading scores and standardized English language arts test scores over the course of the program. English language learner students in the program and those who were furthest behind in reading experienced greater gains in their reading performance while in the program, compared to their peers who entered the program reading at grade level or who were English proficient. Additionally, sites that implemented programming more consistently with higher-quality literacy strategies saw greater reading-level gains for their students.

The study also found that students in CORAL reported having a positive experience in the program. Close to 90 percent of CORAL students reported that they felt safe in the program and 71 percent agreed that they felt that they belonged in the program. Parents of students in the program also reported a positive experience for their children, with more than 90 percent of parents reporting that the program helped their child to do better in school.

Child survey responses indicated their attitudes toward school and reading—such as their level of comfort with the ability to read, wanting to go to school and reporting studying hard for a test—stayed relatively steady, although two of the thirteen outcomes measured—how much students liked reading and how much they liked school—showed significant declines. Although these analyses indicate little change over time for CORAL participants, it is difficult to characterize the findings without a comparison group. The study’s authors refer to research that has showed that, in general, youth’s attitudes toward school and reading tend to decline over this phase of elementary school, and hypothesize that the fact that they report little change may be a relatively positive finding.