School

The program is a nonprofit after-school initiative that aims to inspire and nurture kids' interest in science, math, arts, technology, and more, through hands- ...

Adding the additional stress and pressure to resemble teachers in the after-school programs is asking a lot from them.” Of the districts included in the report, tutoring programs intended to serve 22 to 35 percent of students in targeted schools and grades. “When you think back to when you were in school, when did the sparks go off? Then, districts can point to their success when advocating for future funding from local and state policymakers. “School can’t do it all, and school is so focused on academics and grades, but kids do something much more holistic, where they’re discovering who they are and what their passions are,” Grant said. After-school programs struggling to keep pace with demand, Grant said, should focus on deploying efforts to bolster staffing, like increasing pay or offering sign-on bonuses, as well as providing more professional development and free child care for staff. “My staff members are part-time staff and full-time college students. More than half of the providers said their weekly costs per child have increased, with about 39 percent saying they have grown by 11 to 25 percent. Those efforts have been found to be [most effective during the school day](https://gpl.gsu.edu/publications/remediation-covid-19/), but have shown positive results after school as well. “So these needs, combined with a staffing market that is lacking teachers and most of our teaching positions being only part-time, makes it really hard.” [studies](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED615195.pdf), some dating back decades, have found tutoring or other school-based programs that are tied to classroom content can notably accelerate learning in core content areas, like math and reading. We need to do better.”