Articles of Interest
After Hours: Professional Development for Afterschool
Staff
When the bell rings at the end of the school day, you can
almost feel the tension evaporating as students grab their
books and run out the door. Their minds turn from social studies
to social events. More and more, however, these students are
entering afterschool programs, where their teachers face the
difficult task of letting the students relax while still encouraging
their learning. Increasingly, educators and policymakers expect
the hours after school to have a positive impact on student
performance, forcing afterschool practitioners to become savvy
in their attempts to meet these demands.
NCLB Fosters New Perspective
The
role of afterschool programs has grown in importance since
Congress authorized the creation of the 21st Century Community
Learning Centers (CCLCs) program in 1994. When the No Child
Left Behind Act (NCLB) was passed 7 years later, the 21st CCLC
program’s focus was narrowed to helping students, especially
those in low-performing schools, meet academic standards. In
addition to the hundreds of afterschool programs that were
established as a result of the legislation, NCLB created a
new demand for professional development that would teach afterschool
professionals how to offer academic enrichment that was different
from the school day but would still improve student achievement.
The National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning
at SEDL came together in 2003 in response to this new need.
Funded by the U.S. Department of Education through the 21st
CCLC program, the National Partnership identifies promising
practices in high-quality afterschool education through firsthand
observations of programs across the United States. The National
Partnership also provides training and technical assistance
to help other afterschool programs reach the same level of
quality.
During the site visits, the National Partnership researchers
discovered that adequate staff development was not available
to help afterschool professionals achieve what was expected
of their program. For one thing, practitioners did not know
how to meet the expectation that they would include academic
enrichment in their programs.
“We noticed that most of the staff development that
was available addressed programming needs but little else.
These resources taught afterschool staff how to get funding
and administer their program, but quality instruction wasn’t
part of the training,” says Catherine Jordan, director
of the National Partnership.
Other staff development issues included the range of experience
and skills among afterschool instructors and the limited time
and money available for training. Joe Parker, a SEDL program
associate who coordinates the site visits for the National
Partnership, says, “It is not uncommon to see a staff
that includes certified teachers with years of teaching experience,
college students, senior citizen volunteers who may or may
not have taught, and employees from a community organization
who are there to focus on the arts or some other elective but
don’t have much experience with academic instruction.”
These issues create logistical challenges for providing staff
development. Of course there are always conferences, but at
many sites, only a program director and a site coordinator
are able to attend due to financial constraints. Although they
often return from the conference brimming with ideas and enthusiasm,
they are unsure how to implement what they learned. Few programs
have the funds to bring a trainer on-site. Time limitations
also pose a challenge, as few afterschool programs offer paid
in-service days set aside for staff development the way schools
do.
The National Partnership staff realized they needed to develop
training materials that program directors and site coordinators
could use to conduct their own staff development sessions.
These materials needed to be flexible enough for program directors
to provide training on-site in a time increment that fit their
schedule. They also needed to be affordable, preferably free.
Toolkit Offers Flexible, Focused Professional Development
In response to this need, the National Partnership developed
the Afterschool
Training Toolkit, a free online resource for
afterschool practitioners. The toolkit is organized by six
content areas—literacy, math, science, the arts, technology,
and homework help—with the different member organizations
of the National Partnership developing the content according
to their expertise. The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
developed the literacy content; Mid-continent Research for
Education and Learning developed the math content; the SERVE
Center at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro developed
the science and homework content; and SEDL developed the arts
and technology content. While creating the prototype, the National
Partnership conducted focus groups at the 21st Century Community
Learning Center summer institute and incorporated the feedback
into the toolkit. Currently, toolkits for literacy, math, science,
and the arts are currently available. The toolkits for technology
and homework help will be available in Spring 2007. All of
the content is available online at no cost at www.sedl.org/afterschool/toolkits/.
Each
content area of the toolkit contains such information as
the subject’s unique role in afterschool, research,
and links and references for additional resources. Another
important component of each content area is the promising practices—techniques
that the National Partnership identified, through research
and site visits, as effective in improving student achievement.
For example, promising practices in science include investigating
science through inquiry and exploring science through projects
and problems.
The
toolkit uses a theory-to-practice model, meaning it is based
on research but shows people how to implement the practice.
If, for example, an afterschool instructor reviews the promising
practice called “Finding Math” in the math component
of the toolkit, he or she can read research on the practice
and how to use it in afterschool. Most training materials would
stop there, but the toolkit includes videos that show high-quality
afterschool instruction in progress, providing the afterschool
instructor the benefit of a classroom observation while sitting
at the computer. For example, after reading about how
to bring math to life through everyday activities, the instructor
can watch a video of fifth- and sixth-grade students playing
drums in a percussion group. In the video, a music teacher
explains how he has infused a jam session with math enrichment.
The students, who are clearly having fun, discuss what they
have learned about fractions in their percussion class.
The
toolkit also provides lessons to help afterschool instructors
master the practice. It is important to keep in mind, however,
that the toolkit is not a curriculum but a way for instructors
to embed academic enrichment in their programs. The intent
is that if an instructor watches the video and then teaches
the lesson and reflects on it, that person will not just have
found an activity to fill Wednesday afternoon but will have
learned something about being a more effective educator.
Toolkit Training Available
The
National Partnership offers training sessions to help leaders
of afterschool programs use the toolkit for staff development.
After they have become familiar with the toolkit, these leaders
will return to their sites and serve as facilitators in staff
development sessions.
The
staff development sessions might be as short as 15 minutes
and proceed as follows: first, the facilitator asks staff to
read two paragraphs from the toolkit describing the promising
practice called “Read Aloud.” The facilitator may
ask staff to think about the way they conduct Read Aloud with
their students and then share their processes with the group.
Next, the facilitator draws staff members’ attention
to the toolkit’s video featuring a real-world afterschool
program implementing a Read Aloud. The facilitator invites
staff to take brief notes of the behaviors or processes that
resonate with them. Following the video, the facilitator asks
staff to share their thoughts and reflections through questions
related to their practice (i.e., What processes/behaviors did
you see that you already do regularly with your class? What
aspects of the video did you like? What aspects would you like
more information about? Would you try Read Aloud with your
class? What additional information/materials might you need
to try Read Aloud?).
Christina McAnally, program director of an afterschool program
in Hearne, Texas, attended a toolkit training session held
by the National Partnership last October and has held staff
development sessions based on the training. McAnally’s
staff consists primarily of college students. Although many
of these instructors are education majors, they do not have
the same experience that certified teachers do. McAnally has
used the toolkit to improve the quality of instruction that
her staff provides. She introduced the toolkit during their
daily 30-minute staff meetings. Her staff then watched and
discussed a video and selected a lesson that they would teach.
After teaching the lesson, the staff reconvened at another
meeting to discuss their experiences.
McAnally believes the toolkit has helped her staff provide
higher quality instruction. “Before, we were weak in
incorporating enrichment and academics [in our lessons],” she
says. She refers to the Read Aloud practice in the literacy
toolkit as an example. Before using the toolkit, her staff
simply read stories. “After watching the Read Aloud video,
they started asking pre- and post-questions when they read
stories. There’s always some sort of an enrichment activity
after, like drawing a picture of the story,” she says.
Although the focus of the toolkit is mostly academic, McAnally
has used the toolkit to model classroom management strategies
that her staff may not have learned yet. Between better instruction
and better classroom management, McAnally says, “We began
to see students more engaged and fewer behavior problems.”
Outcomes
The
toolkit is helping afterschool professionals change the way
they approach staff development. They are learning that, with
the proper research-based tools, they can lead staff development
sessions themselves. Those who achieve success with the toolkit
can then serve as facilitators or coaches during the next professional
development opportunity, and in this way, the leadership and
learning are shared.
“When
we first began visiting afterschool programs, they thought
professional development meant sending staff to a conference
or paying hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to fly someone
in to lead a training session,” says Joe Parker. “The
toolkit is changing that.”
The
National Partnership continues to gather feedback on other
ways the toolkit has affected and benefited afterschool programs.
Like Christina McAnally, many practitioners have used the toolkit
to help staff learn how to infuse academic content into their
activities. These changes should enable project directors and
site coordinators to develop action plans for moving forward
in implementing academic enrichment as the focus of their program.
As a result, instructors will come to better understand academic
enrichment and plan accordingly. Sustaining their afterschool
programs should become easier once site coordinators and project
directors share student achievement data with school and community
leaders showing that afterschool makes a difference. And although
they might never use the toolkit themselves, boys and girls
will benefit from engaging, academically enriched activities
each day.
Laura Shankland is a SEDL communications specialist and
Deborah Donnelly is a SEDL program associate. Both work in
the National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning
program. You may reach Laura at lshankla@sedl.org and
Deborah at ddonnell@sedl.org.
Portions of this article previously appeared in Donnelly,
D. (Fall 2006). Developing professionally: Using the Afterschool
Training Toolkit to coach your staff to success. The AfterSchool
Review, pp. 27-30. |
