| Previous research has shown that unstructured socialization with peers and a lack of adult supervision during after school hours are strong predictors of subsequent delinquency and drug use. Accordingly, after school programs have increased in popularity in recent years. Utilizing funds from the Federal Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Act of 1994, the state of Maryland provided funding to increase the availability of high-quality, structured after-school programs for at-risk youth. During the 2001-2002 school year, both process and outcome evaluations were planned for 22 after-school sites in Maryland. Each site was required to enroll a core group of students for both a treatment and comparison/control group for the outcome evaluation. A total of 1118 students were pre-tested in the beginning of the school year and plans were made to post-test these same students at the end of the school year. This paper will summarize the results of this evaluation. |
Updated 05/20/2006