Building and Sustaining High-Quality Out-of-School Time Programs: Lessons Learned from a Multiyear Statewide Initiative

The Out-of-School Time Initiative is an ongoing partnership between Oregon Community Foundation and The Ford Family Foundation. The Initiative supports student success by funding programs that provide high-quality out-of-school time experiences to middle school students of color, students from under-resourced rural communities, and students from low-income families, thereby narrowing the opportunity gap experienced by these students and ultimately mitigating related educational disparities.

This Initiative has supported over 50 community organizations and schools since 2013, strengthening out-of-school time programming for over 15,000 middle school students across Oregon.

Our latest report, Building and Sustaining High-Quality Out-of-School Time Programs: Lessons Learned from a Multiyear Statewide Initiative, is the product of a robust evaluation of the Initiative conducted by the OCF research team and partners. It is a comprehensive overview of the Initiative to date and what we’ve learned about the impact of out-of-school time programs on Oregon students, how to think about and measure this impact, and how to support intensive efforts to bolster program quality. It also offers recommendations for out-of-school time funders, programs, intermediaries and evaluators based on what we’ve learned so far.

Ultimately, what we have learned through the initiative gives us confidence that out-of-school time programs are an effective means of addressing the opportunity gap. These lessons also continue to inform the Initiative’s ongoing development and investment in out-of-school time program quality improvement.