Abstract
This study examined the effects of an afterschool intervention program on struggling third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students. Struggling students in this study are students who performed below grade level on the STAR testing and beginning-of-the-year Benchmark assessments. The afterschool intervention was provided by credentialed teachers trained to teach math and English language arts. Much research has been done on afterschool tutoring using volunteers, parents, and college students. However, none of the extant research detailed what happens when credentialed teachers are used to implement an afterschool intervention program. Teachers used the adopted curriculum for English language arts and math the afterschool intervention program. A mixed-methods approach was used by the researcher to collect and analyze both quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data were collected from an Independent Samples t-Tests to compare students who received English language arts and math interventions after school to students who did not take benchmark assessments in English language arts and math. Qualitative data were collected from 12 classroom observations using the opportunity to view students in the afterschool program through the lenses of Systems Theory, Universal design for Learning Theory, and the Appreciative Inquiry Theory. The analysis studied the afterschool intervention program for the effects from the following: teacher training, positive relationships with teachers, structured for one hour (lessons were made for one hour), students empowered in some decision making in their learning, curriculum meeting the students’ needs, and student engagement in the program. This research adds to the body of knowledge that already exists by documenting an afterschool intervention program taught by trained credentialed teachers. Having credentialed teachers teaching makes an enormous difference in the results of the student’s progress in the program. Student progress was measured using benchmark assessments for math and English language arts.