The Effect of Afterschool Program Participation on English Language Acquisition

This study uses an innovative data source--the Youth Data Archive--to follow elementary and middle school students from a single school district over four academic years to discern any links between their afterschool program participation and English language development. Students attending the program had greater rates of gain in English development, but they did not necessarily achieve proficiency gains or redesignation as "fluent English proficient" sooner than non-participating students. These results point to the need for increased examination of the link between in-school and out-of-school activities in relation to English language acquisition.