Weekly Media Roundup: April 10, 2024

Detroit Kids Dance Through School Work at After-School Program, CBS News Detroit (Michigan)

At the Let’s Dance afterschool program at Detroit’s Dufree Innovation Society, students work with teaching artists on dance routines with academic concepts built in. Afterward, the same teaching artists provide personalized tutoring and homework help. Program leaders say the activities are designed to support students academically, physically and emotionally. “The goal of the program is to build community, so they learn a lot more than just dance. They learn a lot of social skills, how to interact, how to look at body language,” lead instructor Torri Johnson told CBS News Detroit.

Operation Education: Reading and Math Improvements in Elkhart County Boys and Girls Clubs, WSBT (Indiana)

At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Elkhart County’s afterschool programs in Indiana, students take part in art classes, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) labs, music programs, Spelling Bee relays, Math Fact Bingo, and much more. “What we do at Club in that out-of-school time is we are able to take the learning that the kids are getting in the school and enhance it and we like to do it in a way, so the kids don’t know that they are learning in the moment, or they are applying those skills,” Tami Hicks, President and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Elkhart County, told WSBT. The afterschool programs are seeing strong results: Students’ reading scores improved by 167% last year and math scores improved by 59%.

Burke School District Adopts a 4-day Week, Mitchell Republic (South Dakota)

Thanks to a grant from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, Burke Business Promotion Council in Burke, South Dakota will support full-day afterschool programming on Fridays to help families with the school district’s transition to a four-day school week this fall. “We have had outside funded after school programs before but unfortunately the money runs out. This grant was awarded at a time when discussions about the schedule change were happening and some parents were expressing concerns about childcare that would be imposed upon them. Childcare is expensive and hard to find. This should help alleviate childcare shortfalls,” Burke Business Promotion Council’s President Kelsea Sutton told the Michell Republic.

Backing a 'BOOST' for After-School Programs, The Standard-Journal (Pennsylvania)

Last week, Pennsylvania Lt. Governor Austin Davis stopped by the Milton YMCA’s afterschool program, where he met students, toured the facility and observed the program’s enrichment activities. The visit was part of a push from the governor’s office to invest $11.5 million in afterschool in the 2024-2025 state budget. “Investing in after-school programs isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do,” Lt. Gov. Davis told the Standard-Journal. “For every kid who is enrolled in an after-school program, there are two more waiting to get in. We’re hopeful we can get Democrats and Republicans to come together to invest in Pennsylvania’s young people. Because we know that investing in our young people is a bipartisan issue and it gives young people the ladders of opportunities they need to grow up and be successful here in the commonwealth.”