A project of the Afterschool Alliance.

The Impact of Afterschool STEM: East End House

Year Published: 2016

East End House uses a holistic approach to promote the well-being, academic achievement, and lifelong success of youth from under-resourced families. STEM is embedded into its elementary and middle school afterschool program, with the goal to increase excitement and confidence in STEM learning, as well as introduce youth to STEM careers. In this selection of evaluation data from the 2013-2014 school year, participants demonstrated gains along three major categories of youth outcomes—interest in STEM, capacity to engage in STEM, and finding value in STEM.

Program Name: East End House

Program Description: East End House uses a holistic approach to promote the well-being, academic achievement, and lifelong success of youth from under-resourced families. STEM is embedded into its elementary and middle school afterschool program, with the goal to increase excitement and confidence in STEM learning, as well as introduce STEM careers youth may not have known existed or thought possible for them to attain. The East End House STEM curriculum taps into the local, growing biotech sector by bringing in employees from local STEM companies to mentor and teach, and taking students on field trips to worksites.

Scope of the Evaluation: Local

Program Type: Afterschool

Location: Cambridge, MA

Community Type: Urban

Grade level: Elementary School, Middle School

Program Demographics: 31 percent African American, 18 percent Hispanic, 15 percent white, 6 percent mixed race; 4 percent Asian, and 26 percent other. 86 percent are from low or low-moderate income families, 18 percent identify a language other than English as their primary language, and 29 percent have an Individualized Education Program at school.

Program Website: http://eastendhouse.org

Evaluator: Program in Education, Afterschool and Resiliency (PEAR) at Harvard University and internal evaluation by program directors in consultation with senior evaluation and administrative staff.

Evaluation Methods: East End House utilizes the Dimensions of Success tool from the Program in Education, Afterschool and Resiliency (PEAR) at Harvard University for evaluating program quality. Outcome data on students’ confidence, knowledge and interest in STEM is collected using PEAR’s research-based survey tools. The Changes in Attitudes about the Relevance of Science (CARS) survey is used to track change over time, and the Common Instrument includes items tied to a national testing system, allowing comparisons with normative data.

Evaluation Type: Non-experimental

Outcomes:
Below is a selection of evaluation data reported by the program around three major categories of youth outcomes—interest in STEM, capacity to productively engage in STEM, and finding value in STEM. These outcomes are an excerpt from a 2016 Afterschool Alliance paper, "The Impact of Afterschool STEM: Examples from the Field."

Interest: I like to do this
  • Youth come back to East End programs year after year—95 percent of currently enrolled elementary students are returning, and 79 percent of currently enrolled middle school students are returning.
  • Of middle school youth in GenoExplorers, a genetics and genomics curriculum, 62 percent reported their excitement about science either increased or stayed the same, and 70 percent rated their interest and confidence in science and technology higher than a 4 out of 7.
  • Half of middle school students indicated they will take science classes in high school, even if they are optional.

Capacity: I can do this

  • 70 percent of middle school participants reported that they are interested in science and technology and are confident in their skills in these areas.

Value: This is important to me

  • 100 percent of participating middle school students in the Youth Ambassadors for Biodiversity, a service learning curriculum focused on ecology and biodiversity, feel it’s important to use STEM concepts to help others and know how to apply STEM concepts to make the community a better place. And 75 percent of these students also feel they can use STEM concepts to make a difference in their community.
  • Half of all middle school participants indicated that they wish to pursue a STEM career.