Management-information systems that track attendance and other data can make a significant difference in the success of urban out-of-school-time programs, a new report says.
Written by the RAND Corp. of Santa Monica, Calif., the study analyzes efforts by the New York City-based Wallace Foundation to foster systemic out-of-school-time programs in five cities: Boston; Chicago; New York City; Providence, R.I.; and the District of Columbia.
The three-volume report released last week considers lessons from the cities’ efforts and offers case studies on their work.
“Our research finds that the most successful efforts coordinate their assets and resources citywide, enjoy strong support and leadership from their mayors, and they use rich data systems to assess and deliver their programs,” Jennifer Sloan McCombs, the report’s lead author and an education policy researcher at RAND, said in a news release about the study.
The report recommends that cities explore creating a single, common management-information system or that they set up systems in which providers can enter all their data in one place or that allow better information exchanges between agencies.
