21^st Century Schools are likely to grow as community centers, addressing the out-of school issues that have such a profound impact on student learning.

After-school programs, however, are not a guaranteed success. 21st Century Community Learning Centers and The Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) are two of the most rigorously evaluated programs. Participation in the 21^st CCLC program, sadly, had an overall negative effect on the participants.

In the second year, says a new "occasional paper" from the RAND Corporation, "participants were more likely to be suspended from school and to have been disciplined in school (e.g., missed recess or sent to the hall), and their teachers were more likely to have called parents about behavioral problems.

BBSA has promising results. After 18 months in the program, participants were less likely to have started using illegal drugs or alcohol and less likely to have hit someone or skipped school.

The difference might be attributed to the structuring of 21^st CCLC as a funding stream rather than a specific program. Or, perhaps, it is an issue of too much time in the school building.

Current Generation Youth Programs: What Works, What Doesn't, and at What Cost? reviews the costs, benefits, and cost and benefits relative to one another for one alternative type of investment: youth programs that are offered during the time that students are not in school.

The paper focuses on programs targeted to at-risk groups, programs often viewed as a mechanism for addressing working parents' needs for care of their school-age children, for improving the developmental outcomes of youth, and for reducing the gap in academic achievement between advantaged youth and disadvantaged youth.

The authors identify a need for continued research and the establishment of pilot programs.

Source: RAND Corporation, Current Generation Youth Programs: What Works, What Doesn't, and at What Cost?

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