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Edmund A. Stanley, Jr. Research Grants

One of the projects of the Afterschool Matters Initiative is The Edmund A. Stanley, Jr. Research Grants. This is a national grant competition, and applicants do not have to be located in New York City, nor do they have to conduct research in or about New York City programs. Four grants of $10,000 are awarded to support either original empirical research in or about community-based youth programs during the non-school hours or research syntheses or policy analyses of community-based youth programs.

2013 Research Grants

Nov 13, 2014  Anne Lawrence

Belinda I Reyes, Director, César E. Chávez Institute, Associate Professor, Latina and Latino Studies Department, San Francisco State University
Past NASM fellow on the project: Jon Gilgof, Executive Director, Brothers on the Rise San Francisco, CA
The research team proposes to write a synthesis of the existing literature on Out-of-School Time work with school-aged male youth of color. The goal of the study is to provide practitioners and OST administrators with in-depth analyses of key findings, trends, and opportunities within the research literature. The end product will be a “user friendly” practical guide on how to implement culturally responsive and appropriate programs strategies as part of after-school and summer initiatives. The team is proposing to supplement the research synthesis with key informant interviews with local organizations that are either culturally specific or which bring male youth together from different backgrounds.

Anthony de Jesus, Assistant Professor, Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College, CUNY
Youth Organization: Sofia Oviedo, Global Kids, New York
This project proposes to research after school youth organizing that fosters youth civic engagement, policy advocacy, and the improvement of environmental conditions in the communities of Queens, New York. The research project will study various dimensions of youth organizing within a community-based Out-of-School Time (OST) setting as a model for youth civic engagement. The study will also focus on the collaboration that takes place as the participating youth organization’s staff guide and train youth to work with various sectors of their communities to generate environmental policy recommendations. Participating youth will serve as advisers and inform the development of research questions and data collection.

2012 Research Grants

Nov 13, 2014  Anne Lawrence

Jennifer Adams, Brooklyn College
The purpose of this project is to conduct a study of students from underrepresented communities who have participated in a continuum of out of school time (OST) activities over a ten-year period at the New York Hall of Science. Through interviews, observations and various artifacts produced during their participation, the study will investigate if they persevered in science (in spite of the statistical odds); what specific challenges they faced in relation to pursuing science and how their participation might have helped them to negotiate these challenges. Lessons learned from this study will inform the field about designing programs that allow for the successful long-term participation of underserved youth in STEM.

Dale Curry, Kent State University,International Institute for Human Services for Workforce Research and Development
The proposed study will use existing data gathered from a national certification exam validation study to explore similarities and differences in the perception of the certification process and its impact on performance for community-based versus out-of-home care workers. The study will use data from supervisors of participating workers as well as conduct interviews with workers to ascertain their perceptions of the process as well as with workers who did not complete the process to determine barriers for completion.

Eileen Lyons, Fresh Youth Initiatives
The proposed research project will examine the impact of staff members’ participation in ‘structured student conferences’ on their skills as youth practitioners working in out-of-school time settings. The project will assess whether staff conferences – which provide a structured guideline and protocol to guide staff members’ thinking and reflection about a child – are an effective professional development tool. This research focuses on in-service professional development and its role in practice change and improvement.

Sarah Zeller-Berkman, The Public Science Project, CUNY Graduate School
This proposed study intends to study the impact of a professional development opportunity, a five-day institute on Critical Participatory Action Research with youth serving organizations. The researchers intend to gain a better understanding of participants’ engagement in PAR, how they implement a more participatory orientation to assignments, projects and youth inquiry, as well as youth impact -- how youth may become more critical thinkers.

2011 Research Grants

Mar 04, 2011  The Robert Bowne Foundation

Kathyrn Hines, Pennsylvania State University
Researchers from Pennsylvania State University will collaborate with the Pennsylvania Statewide Afterschool/Youth Development Network to identify best practices OST programs can use to provide engaging career programming for older youth.

Dr. Alan Sadovnik, Rutgers University
The research will collect data and analyze issues relating to professional development of OST practitioners specific to the inclusion of children with special needs and will result in a paper containing policy recommendations as well as suggestions for OST administrators and staff.

Lalitha Vasudevan, Teachers College, Columbia University
The Re-imagining Futures Project is a study of how court-involved adolescents experience and interpret their everyday realities as they navigate the institutions of justice and education. In addition, the study will determine how the arts can support critical inquiry into experiences of youth toward helping them re-imagine their futures outside of correctional control.

Deborah Vandell, Femi Vance, University of California, Irvine
This study will explore how program quality is related to adolescents' attendance, and to understand which quality features can be managed to sustain attendence in youth programs. The study will use an existing dataset to examine the structural quality features that predict attendance over a two year period.

2010 Research Grants

Nov 13, 2014  Anne Lawrence

David Shernoff, Department of Leadership, Educational Psychology, and Foundations Northern Illinois University
“What Can Be Learned About Engaging Youth In Schools From Seven Empirically-Supported After-School Programs?” A proposed paper as a companion to a book on youth engagement focusing on what was learned from seven afterschool programs with strong empirical evidence of high student engagement.

Julie Maxwell-Jolly, Center for Applied Policy in Education University of California, Davis
“A Literature Review Of English Learners Experiences in After School Programs.” The goal of this research synthesis is to conduct a literature review that will explore the research on the range of factors and strategies that contribute to improving English learners’ education outcomes as well as research on after and out of school time programs for similar evidence regarding success factors and strategies, in order to explore where the two bodies of literature intersect

Carla Roach, Innovation Center for Community & Youth Development
"Collective Leadership: An Emerging Approach to Community-Based Youth Work.” This research investigates community-based youth agencies and their potential to catalyze a collective leadership approach during out-of-school time in three community-based organizations in Arizona, Connecticut; and California.

Katie Brackenridge, Bay Area Partnership for Children and Youth
This proposal is to explore the impact of an increase in state funding for school-based afterschool programs on the relationships, policies, programming and afterschool practices of school districts, cities and community-based organizations.

2009 Research Grants

Feb 26, 2010  The Robert Bowne Foundation

Adolescent Time Use: Exploring the role of out-of-school time in schooling and labor market outcomes. University of Chicago. Stephen W. Raudenbush, Chloe Hutchinson Gibbs and Matthew P. Steinberg.
This grant explores the role of students' out-of-school time use in their educational experience and labor market outcomes. Specifically, the project will assess how a student's time use is related to important life cycle outcomes, such as high school graduation and college attendance. The data analysis will involve large national databases, including National Household Education Survey (NHES) and Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID).

"In the Interest of Colored Boys": C. J. Atkinson, William T. Coleman and the History of Boys� Clubs in African American Communities, 1906-1931. Society of African American Professionals, Boys & Girls Clubs of Northwest Indiana. Carter Savage.
This grant will enable the completion of two chapters of an historical study of how African Americans came to be served by Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The chapters will describe local stories: the young people, their neighborhoods, the leadership, and programs of these early Boys' Clubs in African American communities. Additionally, there will be an analysis of historical documents, such as historically Black newspapers as well as the "untold story" of the role of African American community leaders in the development of these programs.

Policy Analysis of the Regulatory Landscape for After-school: Current State Policies on Staff Qualifications and Training.
This grant will create a baseline analysis of current state requirements for after-school staff qualifications and training in federally and state-funded or regulated programs as well as selected privately funded programs. Will help policy makers understand the current landscape of regulation related to this area, as well as synthesize requirements across states and funding streams. National AfterSchool Association. Judy Nee.

Research Study on Peer Networking Meetings.
This research project will examine the impact of Peer Networking Meetings on programs and participants. The study will investigate how participants acquire new knowledge and skills, create and establish linkages with other individuals and agencies, enhance perceptions of professional identity, and apply these practices and perceptions to program enhancement. This research will help inform future PNM's planning as well as contribute to the field of OST professional development. Out-of-School Time Resource Center/University of Pennsylvania. Nancy Peter.

2008 Research Grants

Mar 08, 2010  The Robert Bowne Foundation

Ajay Khashu, Center for After-School Excellence.
"Developing Effective Teen After-School Workers"
A research project on promising strategies for developing high school youth to work in after-school programs. It will be an examination of a promising workforce development strategy, the City Scholars Academy, as well as explore general questions about how after-school organizations work to support teen after-school workers.

Milbrey McLaughlin and Ingrid Nelson, John W. Gardner Center for the Study of Youth and Their Communities, Stanford University
An examination of the role of youth development program participation in the pathways to college of working class and Latino adolescents. The study will examine the ways in which the value of program participation varies across youth.

Ellen Markowitz, University of Virginia, School of Education
An ethnographic case study that focuses on better understanding the social processes between adolescents and adults, and between adolescents and their peers that facilitate positive youth development for girls in an after school setting with a mentoring component. Part of a larger evaluation; this study will explore the processes occurring within mentoring groups themselves.

David Shernoff and Deborah Lowe Vandell, University of Northern Illinois
Part of an on-going study of the experiential benefits of afterschool program participation, including increased engagement, intrinsic motivation, and concentrated effort. The grant will be for an analysis of whether the quality of students' experiences and mood states in afterschool programs are related to skill and initiative, social competency and social relations, destructive behaviors, and academic performance.

2007 Research Grants

Mar 08, 2010  The Robert Bowne Foundation

Graham Cochran and Theresa Ferrari, Ohio State University and 4H Youth Development.
Cochran and Ferrari have been funded to write a research synthesis of youth development and workforce preparation. The synthesis will review literature on the skills needed in the workplace, examine existing research on OST programs designed to prepare youth for the workforce and methods of assessment. The paper will provide guidelines for ways to improve the workforce preparation practices of community-based youth development programs.

Robert Halpern, Chapin Hall Center for Children, University of Chicago
This proposal is to support the writing of a book on the topic of apprentice-like learning experiences during adolescence. The book will research the history and development of youth as workers and learners during the Out-of-School Time. It will cover both formal and informal apprenticeships as youth participate in OST programs.

Cindi Katz and Jason Douglas, CUNY Graduate School; Environmental Psychology
Katz and Douglas' study, entitled It's all happening at the zoo: Children's environmental learning after school, is a study of the cognitive development of youth from two Out-of-school Time programs as they participate in a structured program on natural science and conservation at the Bronx Zoo.

Nicole Yohalem, Forum for Youth Investment
Yohalem's study, entitled, "Stories of organizational change: Putting youth engagement at the center," will document organizational change at two youth agencies as well as how the philosophy, focus, and structure of the organizations has evolved over the past several years to emphasize youth-adult partnership.

2006 Research Grants

Mar 08, 2010  The Robert Bowne Foundation

Donna Alvermann, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia.
Alvermann has been funded to document and analyze the ways in which the literacy practices of afterschool web-based youth communities contribute to young people's engagement with reading and writing. The study will utilize youth as researchers to document how web-based communities foster motivation and self-efficacy, particularly for those who are struggling academically.

Ron Fairchild. Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.
Fairchild has been funded to do a research synthesis on summer learning programs, including an overview and history and exploration of summer programs' multiple roles. The synthesis will also include a description of summer program models, as well as examine policies, funding and legislation that are shaping summer programs to be more academically oriented. The synthesis will end with a description of the next wave of policies, and distill current discussions and debates as well as recommend future directions.

Kris Gutierrez, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
Gutierrez has been funded to conduct research examining how opportunities for play and imagination through the use of new technologies, such as digital storytelling, reorganize literacy learning in ways that expand immigrant children's language and literacy. The research site will be an afterschool club designed as a collaborative learning environment for children and UCLA undergraduates who serve as mentors.

Mira-Lisa Katz, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA.
Katz has been funded to study how participation in afterschool dance programs support young women's identity development, cognitive growth and social well-being. In addition, the study will explore how multi-modal approaches, such as dance, can inform and expand current teaching practices and best support positive learning experiences of high-school age youth.

K. Maeve Powlick, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York
This study will examine the relationship between 21st Century Community Learning Centers and economic development in communities of multi-generational poverty. The study will be collaborative, engaging 21stCCLCs, the New York State Center for School Safety, and the New York State After School Network. In addition, it will engage high school youth from the Harvey Milk School in New York City as well as college students from Skidmore College as researchers.

Charles Smith, High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, Ypsalanti, MI.
Smith has been funded to conduct a secondary analysis of a database produced through the Youth Program Quality Assessment Validation Study. The study will focus on relationships between community-based organizations and their partners in afterschool programs funded by the 21st Century Community Learning Centers. The funding from The Robert Bowne Foundation will help to provide directions on how regulatory and accountability procedures can build quality in the afterschool sectors.

2005 Research Grants

Mar 08, 2010  The Robert Bowne Foundation

Michael Bitz, Ed.D.,Teachers College, Columbia University, N.Y.
Michael Bitz has been funded to write a research synthesis on comic book clubs during the afterschool hours. He will write about the "dynamics, outcomes, and impacts" of afterschool comic book clubs in four cities: New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Chicago. Bitz will explore the notion that comic books produced by children are based on themes of democracy and leadership and represent the voices of children who in any other setting would be labeled as "under-achieving." The paper will highlight not only the pathways to democracy that afterschool programs afford children, but also the depth of responsibility and awareness that accompany those freedoms.

Georgia Hall, Ph.D., National Institute on Out-of-School Time, Wellesley College, MA.
Georgia Hall has been funded to investigate the approach and activities of the New York Urban Debate League, and how youth, through their participation, "develop democracy skills and experiences that can effect personal change." The research study will: 1) describe the components of the debate program; 2) profile the youth and adult participants; 3) provide an analysis of the "debate" approach and activities; 4) investigate the experiences of and impacts on participating youth; and 5) outline the infrastructure that supports the delivery of urban debate activities. Hall will also compare literature that claims debate skills transfer to other social, civic, and academic arenas with data generated from the study.

Shirley Brice Heath, Ph.D., Brown University, RI.
Shirley Brice Heath has been funded to conduct a case study of The Food Project (TFP), a sustainable agriculture project that brings inner-city and suburban youth in the Boston area together in a year-round work program. TFP participants run two farmers' markets, develop products and services for entrepreneurial ventures, and supply food and labor for homeless shelters. The study will focus on how TFP is both a democratic environment and sustainable organization, framed by the view that democracy is a "way of working and communicating with others through respect for individual autonomy and civic community, the global and local, and difference as well as sameness." One of the outcomes of this study will be to identify guidelines and principles for program replication.

Lissa Soep, Ph.D., Youth Radio, CA.
Lissa Soep has been funded to study Youth Radio, an afterschool youth media program whose participants cover a range of topics and whose broadcasts are carried regularly on National Public Radio and other major outlets. The study will focus on youth from five community-based youth organizations. Research questions include: 1) What principles and practices shape youth media organizations' efforts to cover stories related to democracy and social justice; 2) To what extent are the learning environments marked by evidence of social justice pedagogy; and 3) What conditions need to be in place for community-based organizations to both cover stories related to democracy and themselves to operate as democratic learning environments? Findings from the study will "enable educators, researchers and policy-makers advance education and afterschool programming as democratic practice."

Sarah Zeller-Berkman, Hour Children, Inc, NY.
Sarah Zeller-Berkman, a doctoral student at the City University of New York Graduate Center, has been funded to study how community-based organizations working with youth affected by incarceration−youth with a parent in prison and youth who have been incarcerated as juveniles−are helping youth foster interpersonal relationships, create expanded social networks, engage youth in democracy-in-action and organize youth around social issues. The study will examine "spaces that promote democracy in action in a society that often excludes young people from democratic ideals." Zeller-Berkman will use a participatory action research design and train youth to be co-researchers in the study.

2004 Research Grants

Mar 08, 2010  The Robert Bowne Foundation

Mollie V.Blackburn, Ph.D., The Ohio State University.
Mollie Blackburn has been funded to write a research synthesis of her work with The Attic Youth Center, a youth-run, community-based center for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth. The synthesis will focus on data collected during "Storytime," a literacy event at the Center, and explore how youth, through this out-of-school literacy activity, developed positive social identities. In addition, the synthesis will identify competencies exhibited during this event and explore their potential alignment with the Standards for English Language Arts.

Cheri Fancsali, Ph.D., The Academy for Educational Development, New York
Cheri Fancsali has been funded to conduct a study that will investigate the ways in which students participating in an afterschool science program (Afterschool Science PLUS+, a program of Educational Equity Concepts, Inc.) develop in-school success. The study will identify competencies addressed by the afterschool curriculum, and researchers will observe students in their elementary school classroom as well as interview their teacher to determine how students apply these competencies in an academic setting.

Meredith Honig, Ph.D., University of Maryland, College of Education
Meredith Honig has been funded to write a research synthesis that will address the critical challenges for community based youth organizations that enter into formal partnerships with schools. The paper will explore the gap between the promise and the practice of expanded school-linked afterschool programming, and how such partnerships can be implemented in ways that support both academic achievement and positive youth development.

Glynda Hull, Ph.D., The University of California, Berkeley
Glynda Hull has been funded to engage in research that will describe and analyze the social, intellectual and artistic development of youth engaged in a community-based afterschool technology program. The research will document youth's developing conceptions of self as writers, poets, and musicians. It will also explore the relationship between the kinds of skills and identities that youth develop in the context of the community center and those they develop in school.

Susan E. Wilcox, Ed.D., The Brotherhood/Sister Sol, New York
Susan Wilcox will engage in research at three community-based organizations that offer single sex programming for their young female participants. The research will identify the positive benefits of "girls' spaces," explore how these spaces support young women's development and help participants define their racial and ethnic identities. The findings of this study will help to inform decisions about creating single sex programs as well as recruiting and retaining participants in single sex programming.

2003 Research Grants

Mar 08, 2010  The Robert Bowne Foundation

Marc Camras, Ph.D., University of California, San Diego will write about a collaboration between UCSD, public schools and community-based organizations. The collaboration involved an afterschool program whose goals were to nurture social affiliation and sense of belonging in immigrant youth. Camrus will describe the potential of afterschool programs to support youth's appropriation of "social capital," primarily through fostering relationships with others who are not part of youth's home community and through engagement in civic education and service learning activities during the non-school hours.

Selim Iltus, Ph.D., and Jason Schwartzman, Ph.D. will write about their collaborative work with two community-based agencies in New York City providing afterschool programs: New Settlement Apartments and Hartley House.

Iltus and Schwartzman's research documented how the afterschool programs struggle to integrate multiple perspectives (between and among afterschool program staff, young people and parents) on what constitute important learning outcomes and processes, while incorporating community resources as an integral part of the learning process.

Gil Noam, Ph.D., Program in Afterschool Education and Research, Harvard University has been funded to conduct the first phase of a research project exploring relationships with youth in afterschool settings. While the construct "caring relationships" is used frequently in the literature on youth development, there has been little in-depth and empirical research that explores how such relationships are formed, maintained and strengthened. Phase I of this research project will involve an extensive literature review of best practices in relationship-building, followed by the convening of experts from a range of disciplines and selection of research methods.

Katherine Schultz, Ph.D.. and Jaskiran Dhillon of the University of Pennsylvania will write about the Media Arts Program, a collaboration between a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania high school, community based arts organization and the University of Pennsylvania. In the program, students engage in learning about media and technology and participate in community-based research with the goal of becoming critical viewers and producers of media. Schultz and Dhillon will explore issues of student engagement and learning in and out of school. In addition, they will describe how a community-based afterschool program can help to close the academic achievement gap for low income and minority students.