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2017-18 North Carolina 21st CCLC Program State-Level Progress Monitoring Report Cohort 11 and 12 Grantees
Year Published: 2019
This 2019 statewide evaluation of North Carolina’s 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) programs found that based on teachers surveyed, students regularly participating in 21st CCLC programs saw improvements in their classroom performance and behavior. Approximately 5 in 6 elementary (84 percent), middle (86 percent), and high school (88 percent) students improved their homework completion and class participation. A majority of elementary (68 percent), middle (74 percent), and high school (84 percent) students also improved their behavior.
Program Name: North Carolina 21st Century Community Learning Centers
Program Description:
North Carolina’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers 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 2017-18 school year, 106 grantees operated programs in 262 centers, serving 17,340 students.
Scope of the Evaluation: Statewide
Program Type: Afterschool
Location: North Carolina
Grade level: Elementary School, Middle School, High School
Program Demographics:
During the 2017-18 program year, 82 percent of students attended high poverty schools (schools that qualify for Title I funding). Regarding race and ethnicity, 49 percent identified as African American, 24 percent identified as White, 19 percent identified as Hispanic, and 9 percent identified as other.
Program Website: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/21cclc/
Evaluator: Hutchins, B.C., McColskey, W., Williams, M., & Mooney, K. SERVE Center at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Evaluation Methods:
To assess student outcomes, two primary sources of data were obtained—state EOG (End-of-Grade) test scores for students in grades 4-8 who attended at least 30 days of programming and who had two years of state test results in reading and math, and teacher surveys entered into the state database for 21st CCLC, 21DC. Teacher surveys assessed improvements in regular attendees’ classroom performance and behavior during the school year.
Evaluation Type: Non-experimental
Summary of Outcomes:
This statewide evaluation of North Carolina’s 21st Century Community Learning Center program found academic and behavioral benefits of participation. It was found that regular participants (attending the program for 30 days or more) across grade levels 4 through 8 improved their year-to-year math test scores at a rate slightly greater than students across the state, with 5th and 8th grades improving at a greater rate. For reading test scores, students improved at a rate similar to the rest of the state; however, when broken down by grade level, 8th grade students improved at a slightly greater rate than students statewide.
Additionally, teacher survey results revealed positive behavioral impacts. For homework completion and class participation, teachers reported that 85 percent of regular attendees overall improved. Broken down by grade level, more than 8 in 10 students in high school (88 percent), middle school (86 percent), and elementary school (84 percent) improved. Teacher reports of student behavior showed similar results, with surveys indicating that 70 percent of regular attendees improved overall. High school students were the most likely to improve their behavior (84 percent), followed by middle school (74 percent) and elementary school students (68 percent).
Finally, 10 percent of regular attendees moved from non-proficient to proficient on the reading EOG assessment from the 2016-17 school year to 2017-18 school year, and 12 percent on the math EOG assessment, meeting the math objective of at least 11 percent of regular attendees improving from non-proficient to proficient, but not for reading.
Date Added: July 7, 2021
