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Expertise Area

Out-of-School Time

RFA has an expansive portfolio of out-of-school time (OST) program and system-level research and evaluation built over the last decade that includes local Philadelphia-based evaluations as well as national multi-site OST research initiatives. We conduct research and provide actionable feedback to OST program and system-level collaborators. RFA prioritizes examining program quality and understanding contextual factors that contribute to or impede access, equity and quality implementation in OST.

We have conducted complex research studies of systems-level (city-wide and district-wide) education and youth development initiatives in major cities across the country, including projects in Atlanta, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Newark, New York City, and Philadelphia.

Since 2011 RFA has served as the evaluator of 21st Century Community Learning Centers for upwards of 19 afterschool providers where we assess program implementation and outcomes and then summarize findings and provide recommendations for future programming. In addition, RFA is partnering with Mathematica Policy Research to conduct a federally funded national study of 21st Century Community Learning Centers and leading a research study for the Wallace Foundation to examine system-level out-of-school time coordination efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our deep understanding of OST programming can be seen in our projects and reports. We use our data to make recommendations and guide decisions affecting students, families, and teachers. OST programming can play a crucial part in the healthy development of children and youth and that is why we are dedicated to using research to support access, quality and equity in OST systems and programs.

Related Projects

Evaluation of a Longitudinal Comparative Study of Black Women in STEM+Medicine

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Out-of-School Time Coordination: Infrastructure for Supporting Healthy OST Ecosystems

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Statewide Studies of Educational Outcomes of Boys & Girls Clubs Members

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Evaluation of K-3 Literacy Programming in Philadelphia

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Out-of-School Time (OST) Coordination: Infrastructure for Supporting Healthy OST Ecosystems

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Evaluation of 21st Century Community Learning Centers

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Documentation of Virtual and Hybrid Summer Experiences for the Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN)

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Evaluation of Engineering Women in Natural Science (EngWINS), an Afterschool STEM Mentoring program

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Afterschool Programs: A Review of Evidence Under the Every Student Succeeds Act

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An Evaluation of Congreso de Latinos Unidos’ Exito Program at Kensington CAPA High School

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Community Perceptions, Quality Assurance, and Literacy Practices in the City of Philadelphia’s Out-of-School-Time System

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Evaluating Women in Natural Sciences (WINS) for the Academy of Natural Sciences

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An Evaluation of Parents as Teachers: Philadelphia Parents as Teachers (PPAT)

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After-School Science Programming in West Virginia: An Evaluation Funded by the National Science Foundation

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An Evaluation of Family Centers: School District of Philadelphia

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A Capacity Building Project with Art Educators: National Arts and Education Consortium (NAEC)

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A Study of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA): The Logan Square Neighborhood Association and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

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A Pilot Study of Young Children’s Mathematical Learning In and Out of School

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An Action Research Project: Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Project with the Philadelphia Schools

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An Evaluation of the School District of Philadelphia’s Faith Partnerships Program

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21st Century Grants: Tracking the Implementation and Success of Academically-Oriented After-School Programs

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Afterschool Arts Programming in the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs of America: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation

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When the Maker Movement Meets STEAM: Evaluating Maker Jawn in Philadelphia’s Free Library

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Related Publications

Responding, Reimagining, Realizing: Out-of-School Coordination in a New Era

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Responding, Reimagining, Realizing: Out-of-School Coordination in a New Era

The Wallace Foundation commissioned Research for Action and McClanahan Associates to study how out-of-school time intermediaries (OSTIs) responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and the role they could play in supporting communities moving forward. Citywide out-of-school…
Virtual Approaches Hold Promise for Expanding After- school Art Programming

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Virtual Approaches Hold Promise for Expanding Afterschool Art Programming

Four Boys & Girls Clubs implementing high-quality art skill development classes for tweens and teens experimented with five different virtual approaches that hold promise for expanding programming. This brief describes three approaches that reach young…

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State Funding to Support Out-of-School Time Programming in Pennsylvania

Out-of-school-time (OST) refers to programs that offer students activities after school and/or during the summer. Despite evidence of significant benefits and a clear demand from families, Pennsylvania has no dedicated state funding to provide OST…

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Costs And Quality in Virtual/Hybrid Summer Youth Employment Programming

Since 2003, Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN), a Philadelphia-based non-profit organization, has provided young people summer employment opportunities through the WorkReady program. In Spring 2020, as a result of the impact of COVID-19, PYN pivoted WorkReady…

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Executive Summary: Raising the Barre & Stretching the Canvas

As part of an ongoing, multi-million dollar Wallace Foundation initiative to improve and expand arts learning opportunities for young people, the Wallace Foundation, in partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), developed…

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Supporting Literacy in Out-of-School Time: Summary of Evidence

The City of Philadelphia’s Citywide Out‐of‐School‐Time (OST) Initiative was launched in February 2017 to better coordinate and focus the capacities of OST programs on the needs of the city’s children. The first phase of this initiative…

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Charter School Special Education Funding in Pennsylvania

For many years there have been calls to reform how Pennsylvania funds special education both for school districts and charter schools. While some modest changes were recently legislated, they applied exclusively to new state special…

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Summary of 21st Century OST Learning Community Workshops

During the summer and fall of 2015, RFA hosted three Learning Community Workshops to provide opportunities for Philadelphia’s 21st CCLC providers to further discuss the findings from the “citywide” report as well as their implications…

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Creating a Comprehensive Picture of School Performance

For more than two decades, states have been required to report publicly on the academic performance of schools and districts. These school rating systems have received increased public attention amid growing concerns about the prevalence and…

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A Guide to Facilitating Action Research for Youth

This guide, developed for Youth United for Change, to facilitate action research for youth includes a case study of Oakland youth and provides a framework for supporting youth action research. The guide describes action research,…

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Teachers in the School District of Philadelphia: Tables on Teacher Retention and the Distribution of Teachers’ Certification Levels and Experience in the District by School Type, Poverty Level, and School Racial Composition

This report summarizes findings from an analysis carried out by the authors on a data set representing all teachers employed in the School District of Philadelphia over the three-year period 1999-2000 to 2001-2002. In addition,…

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Home to School: Numeracy Practices and Mathematical Identities

Drawing on a perspective of mathematics as situated social practice, we focus on 4 children in an urban preschool classroom and follow those children between home and school sites to shed light on urban children’s…

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Teacher Quality Inequitable in Philadelphia’s Schools

This article reports on a series of teacher quality reports published by Research for Action. According to a new analysis of data on Philadelphia teachers, schools that have a student population with 10 percent or…
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