Factors of a Successful Computer-Based After-School Program - Research Paper Example

Having data to support the impact on academics of at-risk students will be beneficial to the program which requires funding, the entity which will supply the funding, and the students themselves as they will be able to determine if their time and/or money will be well-spent. This was a research project using interviews and reviews of academic progress reports/report cards. This method allowed the researcher to not only establish a baseline as far as the students’ grades are concerned but allowed for a look at the students’ points-of-view of the program.

The interviews took place at the middle school.Considerable attention and resources have been directed to after-school programs, particularly those that serve urban students and even more specifically those that serve at-risk students in urban schools. However, little is known about the origin, mission, or goals of after-school programs (Halpern, 2002), and even less is known about the impact on academics of the students who participate in these programs. More attention is being presently focused on these programs because there is a growing awareness that all students, including those who differ in some way from the “average” student, must be provided with an equitable, non-stigmatizing education (Montgomery and Rossi, 1994).

Academic-based after-school programs may be one way that professionals can supplement the traditionally under-achieving at-risk students’ knowledge, skills, and abilities and help them reach and remain at-grade-level performance.Neither student diversity nor after-school programs are new to America’s school system. One account suggests that these programs emerged at the start of the 20th century as a result of an economic and ideological shift in the United States from using children as laborers to placing children in classrooms (Halpern, 2000).