The 21st Century Community Learning Center program needs to be better aligned with the accountability and research principles of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, a new evaluation shows.

"The evaluation of this program represents the most rigorous examination to date of school-based after-school programs," said U.S. Undersecretary of Education Eugene Hickok. "This program was designed to address readily apparent needs in our communities, like getting kids off the streets, providing academic services after school, and having constructive and enriching experiences for our children. Thanks to this study, we found areas where we can improve."

Conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, The National Evaluation of the 21st-Century Community Learning Centers Program, released today, examines the characteristics and outcomes of typical programs. The study did not attempt to define or identify the characteristics of the best programs.

The first-year findings reveal that these centers changed where and with whom students spent some of their after-school time and increased parental involvement. However, the report also shows that these programs had little influence on academic performance and no influence on feelings of safety or on the number of "latchkey" kids. Another finding was that the program had low levels of student participation.

The 21st Century Community Learning Program began in 1998 under the Elementary and Secondary and Education Act, with $40 million awarded to 99 grantees in 34 states, supporting programs in about 360 schools.

Reauthorized under the No Child Left Behind Act, the program received $1 billion in 2002. It now supports about 6,800 rural and inner city public schools in 1,420 communities. The focus of the program is to provided expanded academic enrichment opportunities for children attending low performing schools.

The findings show that grantees generally succeeded in implementing their planned programs and in gaining support from and creating working relationships with school principals and schools. Most programs provided academic and recreation activities, with homework help being the most common academic service. According to these initial findings, a few programs focused only on providing academic activities, but none focused only on providing recreational activities.

Overall, the findings suggest that policymakers and program developers need to consider ways to increase student participation and improve the academic enrichment offered to students. The after-school program also should consider structures that would increase student attendance. And, programs should focus on students who are having difficulty in reading or math and ask them to participate a minimum number of days each week, the study said.

The report is available online at http://www.ed.gov/pubs/21cent/firstyear/.