Children alone half the time, survey reports
Posted on Tuesday, July 8, 2008
About half of the Arkansas middle and high school respondents to a recent survey reported they are routinely without adult supervision after school but would consider participating in after-school activities if offered, according to a study by the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock.
Hispanic students statewide and students in Northwest Arkansas had the greatest unmet demand for after-school activities, while central Arkansas students had the greatest awareness and participation in such programs, according to the Clinton School project done in partnership with the Governor’s Task Force on Best Practices for After School and Summer School Programs.
The task force is charged with drafting after-school and summer-program legislation for consideration during the 2009 legislative session that begins in January.
Patricia Wright of Arkadelphia, co-chairman of that task force, said Monday the Clinton School study will help as the task force works to establish a possible state framework for after-school programs.
As director of the Schools for the 21 st Century program in the Arkadelphia School District, Wright oversees efforts to provide after-school programs and other support services to students and their families. Those needs have not lessened, she said.
“Having worked with afterschool programs since 1997, we are still seeing working parents and the needs that result from that,” Wright said. “We want to make sure children have structure and supervised activities during those after-school hours. That is critical because we have so many parents working those second-shift jobs or sometimes even a third shift.”
Arkadelphia has had success with its after-school programs, she said.
“We see the need continuing to grow, so I’m really excited about the governor’s task and what we are doing to look at a statewide initiative and how we can get some policy recommendations. We don’t know the direction it will all take, but it is exciting.”
A total of 3, 726 students in grades five through 12 and in 16 school districts statewide responded to the survey earlier this school year. That represents about 1 percent of all public-school students. Additionally, 12 principals completed surveys, and five parent focus groups were conducted.
Clinton School students Jose Guzzardi of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Marquita Little of Little Rock and James Mitchell of Cleveland, Miss., wrote the 121-page analysis to fulfill a requirement for their master’s of public service degrees.
Guzzardi, working this summer in Washington D. C., said Monday that the study somewhat surprisingly revealed that students and their parents not only want supervised afterschool programs but want those programs to focus on sports, arts, crafts, music, technology and job training, as well as to provide homework help.
“Most of the after-school programs being offered [through public schools ] are a continuation of academic programs,” Guzzardi said.
“Our survey showed that both students and parents are looking for more recreational activities for the after-school hours. They are looking for something to do and being supervised in the after-school hours, but not just continuing their classroom work. But parents also mentioned several times that they enjoy [their children getting ] the help with homework.”
Only 15. 6 percent of middleand high-school student respondents to the survey said they attended an after-school program at least three days a week, which is considered regular attendance.
Fifth-graders had the lowest participation rate at 6. 3 percent followed by 12 th-graders at 10. 3 percent.
Hispanic students had the lowest participation of any racial or ethnic group at 11. 4 percent.
Asked if they would participate in after-school activities at their schools, 67 percent of Hispanic students, 62 percent of black students and 53 percent of white students said they would either most likely attend or think about attending.
“Hispanic students were the least likely to be enrolled in after-school programs,” Guzzardi said about the study’s findings. “Yet, they are the most likely to consider enrolling in programs that are available. We recommended to the task force that they increase awareness and try to attract more Hispanic students to after-school programs, particularly in Northwest Arkansas — that’s the largest area in terms of Hispanic population.”
In Springdale and Rogers, the school districts with the state’s highest populations of Hispanic students, educators are making efforts to reach uninvolved populations.
“If we don’t do something, we’ll have the top-notch kids working at McDonald’s,” said Jeanette Arnhart, a teacher at Rogers’ Oakdale Junior High.
When a group of Hispanic girls failed to make the school’s cheerleading squad this year, Arnhart volunteered to sponsor a nonschool sanctioned hip-hop club.
After-school involvement exposes children to new viewpoints and helps many Hispanic students, who also live in lowincome homes, realize they can achieve income and education levels beyond their parents, she said.
A lack of involvement within the Hispanic population is perpetuated by a lack of qualified staff with time to sponsor activities and a cultural disconnect between newly migrated parents and schools, Arnhart said.
The hip-hop club, a group of 25 girls, largely Hispanic, choreographs its own dances and performs at community events. The club set its own academic requirements and behavior expectations, and dancers tutored their struggling peers, helping them to improve their grade point averages.
Oakdale’s principal, James Goodwin, launched other activities, including a guitar club, to reach uninvolved students.
Springdale launched a similar hip-hop club earlier this year, pairing students with a University of Arkansas at Fayetteville sorority.
And the Rogers Activity Center has attracted Hispanic students to play soccer.
Arnhart said involved students are more likely to become a part of the local culture and engaged with political and social issues.
“If you’re not active in school, you’re not active in the community, either,” she said.
Lynn Donald Carver and Diana Gonzales-Worthen, both of Springdale and members of the governor’s task force on afterschool programs, could not be reached for comment Monday about the Hispanic student interest in activities.
Of the 3, 726 survey respondents, 429 were Hispanic or Latino, 1, 071 were black, 1, 615 were white and the remainder were classified as American Indian / Alaskan native, native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander, Asian / Asian American, “other” and “not reported.”
Nineteen percent of black students reported participating in after-school programs, as did 14 percent of white students.
Students were asked how often they were alone or with friends — and without adult supervision — after school for at least one hour. A total of 46. 8 percent reported that they were without supervision two times a week or more. Another 12 percent said they were unsupervised once a week. In contrast, a total of 27. 2 percent said they were never left unsupervised.
High school seniors were the most likely to be left without adult supervision two or more times a week, 62. 1 percent. That was followed by 10 th-graders at 60. 2 percent and 11 th-graders, 59. 5 percent. On the lower end, about 26 percent of fifth-graders said they were unsupervised two or more times a week.
The Clinton School study, “The Demand for After School Programs in Arkansas” is available at the Arkansas Out of School Network Web site: http: // aosn. org. Information for this article was contributed by Evie Blad of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
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