Have no fear, after school is here.

Improving lower-performing schools does not require the ability to fly faster than a speeding bullet or a spandex-wearing sidekick. Instead, to improve these schools we need a multi-faceted approach that involves teachers, support staff, voters, administrators, parents and community members. 

Despite the heavy promotion of charter schools in Waiting For Superman, research shows charter schools are not the end all be all. Nor are they our only solution. To effectively change the school system, we need to focus on all the aspects listed above. The I Have a Dream Foundation seems to have hit a good method to improve scores and graduation rates for underprivileged minority children in lower-performing schools. Their method? A well-run after school program. They're doing their part in the community to put these schools back on the map. Research shows their method, as well as other after school tutoring programs, is extremely successful.


Benefits for children of a well-run after school: 
- More likely to go to school regularly
- Show more excitement about school and learning
- Better test scores and grades
- Average graduation rates roughly 20 percent higher than that of peers with no after school program
- Less likely to get into fights
- Less likely to have babies
- Less likely to use drugs
- Better behavior during school hours


Also importantly, studies show that children most at risk are the ones who are most likely to show significant educational and social gains after participation in after school activities.


(for similar research check out the After school Alliance's homepage at  http://www.afterschoolalliance.org)


In addition to these positive impacts, the National Education Association writes, "After-school programs also are increasingly providing the kind of enriched academic content – especially in arts, music, foreign language and civics education — that has been cut by shrinking budgets or shoved aside so that teachers can spend more time preparing for high-stakes tests. Especially in high-poverty, high-minority communities, where the pressure to meet Adequate Yearly Progress is fierce, teachers report that the No Child Left Behind law has forced them to abandon anything but reading and math."

If the I Have a Dream Foundation can successfully give their students higher grades and social skills with unpaid volunteers for less than $2,000 per student per year, why are other staffed after school programs not following their curriculum and program examples? Several school-run after school programs worry more about feeding children snack and keeping them quiet than they are about showing interest in students' personal lives, helping with homework, giving special rewards like ice-cream sundae parties or slumber parties and making sure they know they're appreciated. If lawmakers, community members, taxpayers and teachers joined up to create school-run after schools with better programs, modeled after successful programs such as IHAD, we could probably achieve the same, if not better results in neighborhood public schools than the results of children in Waiting for Superman's heralded charter schools.