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South Carolina Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers Statewide Evaluation: 2019-21 Program Year and Effectiveness Report
Year Published: 2022
A 2022 evaluation of South Carolina’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) program found that there was a positive impact on academic and behavioral outcomes among students regularly attending the program compared to their non-participating peers and students who attended programming less regularly, with greater gains associated with higher levels of program participation. Regular program participants performed better on state standardized tests in math and saw reductions in unexcused absences and disciplinary incidents. Teacher surveys revealed that regular attendees needing improvement showed growth in their academic performance, class participation, homework completion, motivation to learn, interaction with others, and classroom behavior.
Program Name: South Carolina 21st Century Community Learning Center
Program Description:
South Carolina’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) program, which receives federal funding through the 21st CCLC initiative, provides afterschool and summer academic enrichment opportunities for children at high-poverty and low-performing schools throughout the state. During the 2019-20 school year, 139 sub-grantees operated 189 centers and served 16,181 students, and in 2020-21, 146 sub-grantees operated 174 centers and served 10,357 students.
Scope of the Evaluation: Statewide
Program Type: Summer, Afterschool
Community Type: Rural, Urban, Suburban
Grade level: Elementary School, Middle School, High School
Program Demographics:
During the 2019-20 program year, among regular attendees, less than 1 percent identified as Hispanic/Latinx, less than 1 percent identified as American Indian/Alaska Native, less than 1 percent identified as Asian, less than 1 percent identified as Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 12 percent identified as multiracial, 21 percent identified as white, and 66 percent identified as Black/African American.
During the 2020-21 program year, among regular attendees, less than 1 percent identified as American Indian/Alaska Native, less than 1 percent identified as Asian, less than 1 percent identified as Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 8 percent identified as Hispanic/Latinx, 8 percent of regular attendees identified as multiracial, 29 percent identified as white, and 55 percent identified as Black.
Program Website: https://ed.sc.gov/districts-schools/student-intervention-services/21st-century-community-learning-centers/
Evaluator: Sniegowski, S., Belmont, A., Stargel, L., & Lentz, A. American Institutes for Research
Evaluation Methods:
This evaluation uses data from the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years and the 2016-2019 school years, where applicable. Evaluators collected relevant data from sub-grantees through the South Carolina 21st CCLC Data Hub, developed by AIR to serve as a place for 21st CCLC sub-grantees to enter mandatory information for federal data reporting and to measure program effectiveness, including youth demographics, 21st CCLC attendance data, and teacher surveys. The South Carolina Department of Education used data collected through the Hub and merged it with information available in the state’s data warehouse PowerSchool to find school day attendance, disciplinary infractions, standardized test scores, grade point averages, and credit hours for 21st CCLC participants. Evaluators then conducted descriptive and effectiveness analyses to determine outcomes for young people who attended 21st CCLC programs and used a propensity score matching approach to compare regularly attending 21st CCLC participants to nonparticipants and non-regularly attending participants.
Evaluation Type: Quasi-experimental
Summary of Outcomes:
A 2022 evaluation of South Carolina’s 21st CCLC programs from 2019-2021 found that regular program participation (attending for 30 days or more) resulted in positive outcomes for participants, including fewer absences, better grades, increased engagement in class, and a lower number of disciplinary incidents. Researchers also found that higher participation in the program presented even greater benefits, including significant benefits for students who regularly attended for two consecutive years compared with nonregular attendees.
Evaluators found that regularly attending students with unexcused absences in the prior school year had fewer absences the following school year in 2019-20 (34 percent) and 2020-21 (41 percent). Compared to their non-participating peers, regularly attending 21st CCLC participants had 10 percent fewer absences. Improvement was higher among students attending the program for 60 days or more; compared to students who did not participate in the program, students attending the program at high levels had 22 percent fewer absences. Students who regularly attended for 60 days or more over the course of two consecutive years had 19 percent fewer absences compared to students who did not participate in the program either year.
Participants also made gains in the classroom. Regular attendees had a 1.05 higher percentile ranking in math compared with their peers attending less often and for students attending the program at least 60 days over two years, these students had a 1.02 higher percentile ranking in math compared to their non-participating peers. Additionally, according to teacher surveys, most regular attendees who needed to improve during the 2019-20 school year showed growth in academic performance (85 percent), class participation (85 percent), satisfactory homework (84 percent), and motivation to learn (80 percent). Regular attendees who needed to improve had similar outcomes during the 2020-21 school year in academic performance (85 percent), class participation (84 percent), satisfactory homework (84 percent), and motivation to learn (82 percent). Additionally, more than half of regular attendees improved their reading grades by five points or more from the first to the last marking period of the year in 2019-20 (58 percent) and 2020-21 (62 percent). There was similar growth in mathematics, with most regular attendees improving their math grades by five points or more in 2019-20 (55 percent) and 2020-21 (61 percent).
Evaluators found that regularly attending participants with any school day disciplinary incidents in the previous school year had a lower number or none in 2019-20 (69 percent) and 2020-21 (74 percent), and when comparing regular attendees to students attending less regularly, regular attendees had fewer discipline incidents. Students attending the program for 30 days or more had 24 percent fewer incidents, and students attending the program for 60 days or more had 32 percent fewer incidents. When comparing participants to their non-participating peers, students attending the program for 60 days or more across the two years had 10 percent fewer disciplinary incidents. Teachers also reported positive behavioral outcomes for regular attendees with room for improvement. In both the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years, most regular attendees in need of improvement had more success getting along well with others (78 percent and 79 percent, respectively) and behaving well in class (78 percent and 77 percent, respectively.).
Nearly all students regularly participating in the program during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years were promoted to the next grade (97 percent, all) or graduated on time (100 percent and 97 percent, respectively).
Date Added: February 12, 2024
