HFRP Associate Director Tapped to Testify at House Hearing
Priscilla Little, associate director of the Harvard Family Research Project
(HFRP) at HGSE, testified at the Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary
Education Subcommittee Hearing, “After School Programs: How the Bush Administration's
Budget Impacts Children and Families” for the United States House of Representatives
Committee on Education and Labor on March 11.
An expert in the field of out-of-school time (OST), Little was one of four
witnesses invited to testify. Chaired by U.S. Representative Dale Kildee (D-MI),
the hearing examined the potential effects of President Bush's plan to slash
by 26 percent, or $281 million, funding for the 21st Century Community Learning
Centers (21st CCLC)—the federally supported after school program that provides
services to more than 1.5 million children and their families.
Little began her testimony with “a very simple message: After school
programs are a critical component of children's education and development and,
in part thanks to the 21st CCLC grants program, we have a good solid evidence
base to support this claim.” The 21st CCLC grants program has provided
new money for programs and studies that Little has tracked for more than ten
years.
Little speaks nationally on research and evaluation of after school programs,
and how best to use this research for policy and practice. She is uniquely positioned
to provide insight for effective policies to support children's learning, drawing
from over a decade of work at HFRP devoted to building the knowledge base for
successful OST initiatives.
HFRP's mission in OST is to promote the strategic use of information to improve
the quality, accessibility, and sustainability of OST programs across the nation.
This work includes compiling the only national database of OST evaluations and
research studies, and disseminating accessible publications to help policymakers
and practitioners understand what these studies tell us about effective programming.
In her testimony, Little referred to studies that demonstrate how quality
after school programs improve academic, social and emotional outcomes, especially
for low-income children. “It is important to note that the common thread
among all these studies is not just that the programs intentionally tried to
improve academic performance and therefore offered academic support, but that
they combined it with other enrichment activities to achieve positive academic
outcomes,” she said.
But, Little notes, to succeed in a competitive global economy young people
must “be equipped with a set of skills that goes beyond the 3 R's…they
need to become effective communicators, know how to develop and sustain relationships,
solve problems, and have a strong sense of self. [The research offers] solid
evidence that 21st CCLC and other after school programs can support a range”
of these desirable behavioral outcomes.
Little's latest publication is an issue brief entitled After School Programs
in the 21st Century: Their Potential and What it Takes to Achieve It. The
brief draws on seminal research and evaluation studies to address the evolving
role of after school.
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