Training of Out-of-School Staff Debated
As out-of-school programs—and the expectations for them—grow, the field is struggling to identify the kind of training staff members need to meet those expectations.
A variety of efforts have sprung up across the country to define and improve the quality of after-school staff, some of which bear resemblance to the quest to improve the effectiveness of classroom teachers. But given that many out-of-school programs face limited funding and their staffs tend to be young, part-time workers who rarely commit to the job for long, questions remain over how to provide professional development in a cost-effective way.
"We have a hard enough time creating effective teaching in K-12. It's even harder for after-school programs, whose staff are young people who can connect with kids but have high rates of turnover," said Robert Granger, the president of the William T. Grant Foundation , which has underwritten research and other efforts to improve after-school programs. "After-school work has hours and pay for staff that make it not a career job, but staff still need ongoing coaching while they are working with youth. The best programs and systems are figuring out how...
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