The Out-of-School Time Special Interest Group (OST SIG) is an affinity group for professionals and students interested in research on how children and youth spend their time during out-of-school hours. A primary focus of this research is teaching and learning in before- and after-school programs and summer programs, but out-of-school time also includes weekends, holidays, evenings, and other times of day characterized by discretionary opportunity, choice, and flexibility.
The purpose of the OST SIG is to provide a forum for researchers in out-of-school time teaching and learning to share resources and become each others' resources, to provide venues and opportunities to present related research, and to bring additional resources to AERA.
The OST SIG formed just prior to the 2006 annual meeting in San Francisco.
Officers
2016-17 Officers
Tara Donahue, PhD
McREL
(Chair)
Dr. Tara Donahue is a managing evaluator at McREL International. She conceptualizes, manages, and conducts research and evaluation projects on several different education-related programs with state education agencies, school districts, and institutions of higher education. She has recently worked on evaluations with a National Comprehensive Center, an Investing in Innovation grant, Teacher Quality Partnership grants, Trade Adjustment Assistance Training for Career and Community College grants, and Territories and Freely Associated States Educational grants. Prior to joining McREL, Tara’s work focused specifically on out-of-school time and extended learning evaluation, research, professional development, and technical assistance. She has worked extensively, and continues to consult, with federally-funded 21st Century Community Learning Centers program on the local, state, and national level. Tara has provided workshops and seminars to adult learners on a variety of education topics related to extended learning. She has presented at several national out-of-school time conferences, including the National Afterschool Association, the Best of Out of School Time (BOOST), and Foundations, Inc. annual meetings. Tara has also had papers accepted at the American Evaluation Association and AERA, where she served as the membership director of the OST SIG from 2007-2008 and is the current secretary/treasurer. The OST SIG has grown over the past few years, and Tara looks forward to ensuring the SIG flourishes by continuing to serve on the leadership team. As Chair, Tara will strive to ensure that the OST SIG continues to provide opportunities for OST professionals to collaborate and learn from one another.
Katie Brohawn, PhD
ExpandED Schools
(Program Chair)
Katie joined ExpandED Schools (formerly known as The After School Corporation [TASC]) in early 2012. There she leads the Research Department, helping to establish the organization's research and evaluation priorities in order to raise service quality and inform policy and supporting the organization to make data and research-driven continuous improvement, with special attention to relevant, timely research in expanded learning. She oversees all evaluation activities, including both the internal and external evaluation of the ExpandED Schools initiative, Frontiers in Urban Science Exploration OST programs, and 21st CCLC after-school programs. Prior to joining ExpandED Schools, she served at the NYC Department of Education as the Director of Research and Evaluation in the Research and Policy Support Group. There she oversaw the external evaluations of large-scale initiatives, such as the roll-out of the Common Core and designed and implemented internal evaluations of DOE pilot programs, such as the School of One. Prior to coming to New York, she worked as a consultant at Goodman Research Group evaluation firm in Boston. Katie holds a BA in Neuroscience from Connecticut College and a PhD in Psychology with a focus on the neuroimaging of psychiatric disease from Tufts University. Given her background in this area, she has merged her passions for education, out-of-school time, and neuroscience via ExpandED Schools' blog series NeuroConnections.
Elizabeth Devaney
American Institutes of Research
(Secretary/Treasurer)
Elizabeth Devaney has over 15 years of experience in implementing and studying programs designed to support youth outside of school hours as they grow and develop socially, emotionally and academically. Her expertise and interests include afterschool systems building, research to practice connections, social and emotional learning, and quality improvement. Much of her career has focused on making research findings accessible to the practice community and creating tools and resources to assist practitioners in implementing research-based practices. As a senior researcher at AIR, Devaney currently directs evaluations of the Texas 21st Century Community Learning Center initiative and Rochester, New York’s expanded learning initiative, and is developing a series of research to action briefs focused on afterschool. She was co-author of the fourth edition of Beyond the Bell®: A Toolkit for Creating High-Quality Afterschool and Expanded Learning Programs. Prior to joining AIR, she worked as an independent consultant, as deputy director of the Providence After School Alliance (PASA) and as a project director at the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL). In 2009, Devaney was a W.T. Grant Foundation Distinguished Fellows. She received a master’s degree in social policy from the Heller School at Brandeis University. Devaney brings to the secretary/treasurer position deep knowledge of both the research and practice out-of-school time communities, excellent project management, writing and communication skills, and meeting planning expertise. Her past positions have required her to oversee project and organizational budgets and regularly synthesize large amounts of complicated data into easily digestible summaries.
2015-16 Officers
Helen Janc Malone, EdD
Institute for Educational Leadership
Valerie Futch, PhD
Youth-Nex, University of Virginia
Corey Bower, PhD
Niagara University
(Social Media Editor)
Tom Akiva, PhD
University of Pittsburgh
(Website Editor)
Founding Officers 2005-06
(titles at the time of founding)
Brenda McLaughlin
SIG Chair & Secretary/Treasurer
Johns Hopkins University, Center for Summer Learning
Sara Hill
Program Chair
The Robert Bowne Foundation
Helen Janc Malone
Membership Chair & Newsletter/Web Editor
Harvard University
Contact the OST SIG Chair to share your most recent publication, and we will highlighted it here:
• Akiva, T., Cortina, K., & Smith, C. (2014). Involving Youth in Program Decision-Making: How Common and What Might it Do for Youth? Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43, 1844-1860. • Akiva, T., Cortina, K. S., Eccles, J. S., & Smith, C. (2013). Youth belonging and cognitive engagement in organized activities: A large-scale field study. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 34, 208-218. • Deschenes, S. N., & Malone, H. J. (2011, June). Year-round learning: Connecting school, afterschool, and summer contexts to support learning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Family Research Project. • Fusco, D. (2013). Is youth work being courted by the appropriate suitor? Child & Youth Services, 34, 196-209. Fusco, D. (2012). Advancing Youth Work: Current Trends, Critical Questions. New York: Routledge.
• Fusco, D. and Baizerman, M. (Eds.). (2013). Professionalization deconstructed: Implications for the field of youth work. Child & Youth Services, 34.
• Fusco, D., Lawrence, A., Matloff-Nieves, S., & Ramos, E. (2013). The Accordion Effect: Is quality in afterschool getting the squeeze? Journal of Youth Development, 8, 4-14. Reprinted in Youth Today. • Henig, J., Malone, H. J., & Reville, P. (2012). Addressing the disadvantages of poverty: Why ignore the most important challenge of the post-standards era? In J. Mehta, R. J. Schwartz, & F. M. Hess (Eds.), The futures of school reform (pp. 119-149). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
• Kruse, T.P. & Marcus, P. (2014). "More than a Job: Youth Social Entrepreneurship & Social Change," paper presented at the annual meeting of National Association of Multicultural Education, Tucson, AZ, November 7.
• Mahacek, R. & Worker, S. (2011). Extending science education with engineering and technology: Junk drawer robotics curriculum. In A. Subramaniam, K. Heck, R. Carlos, & S. Junge (Eds.), Advances in youth development: Research and evaluation from the University of California Cooperative Extension 2001-2010 (pp. 46-57). Davis, CA: University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. Available from http://www.ca4h.org/files/130752.pdf
• Malone, H. J. (Ed.) (2013). Leading educational change: Global issues, challenges, and lessons on whole-system reform. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University. • Malone, H. J. (2013). The search stage: When, where, and what information do urban public high school students gather about college. Journal of School Counseling, 11(13). • Malone, H. J. (Ed.). (2011, Fall). New Directions for Youth Development: Expanded learning time and opportunities, No. 131. San Francisco: Wiley/Jossey-Bass. • Smith, M., Heck, K., & Worker, S. (2012). 4-H boosts youth scientific literacy with ANR water education curriculum. California Agriculture, 66(4), 158-163. Available from http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/repositoryfiles/ca6604p158-97208.pdf
• Soendergaard, Bettina Dahl & Stald, Line (2013). Få meget ud af lidt: langtidseffekt af workshop til universitetsstuderende i naturvidenskabelig formidling i uformelle læringsmiljøer [Long term effect of workshop aimed at training university science students to disseminate knowledge in informal learning environments]. MONA (Mathematics and Science Education). Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 22-37. ISSN: 1604-8628 (http://www.ind.ku.dk/mona/).
• Tsikalas, K.E., Barnett, S, Martin, K.L. (2014). More than S'mores: Surprises and successes in Girl Scouts' outdoor experiences. New York, NY: GSUSA. Available online at http://www.girlscouts.org/research/pdf/GSRI_More_than_Smores-Outdoor_Experiences.pdf
• Worker, S.M. (2014). Evaluating adolescent satisfaction of a 4-H leadership development conference. Journal of Extension, 52(2). Available at: http://www.joe.org/joe/2014april/rb4.php
The name of this Special Interest Group (“SIG”) is the Out-of-School Time SIG, (hereinafter, the “SIG”).