Boys and Girls Club – Project Learn
Solution types
School Dropout Prevention
Problems addressed
Low educational/academic performance
School dropout
Effectiveness

Promising

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Promising

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Life periods served
Children (4 to 13 years)
Teenagers (14 to 17 years)
Where the program was applied
Community (streets or community centers)
Country of application
United States
Description

This is a program to improve the academic performance of adolescents between 10 and 14 years of age in situations of social and economic vulnerability. The program seeks to increase students’ interest in education and develop academic skills to improve academic performance.
The weekly curriculum of the learning project includes:
- 4 to 5 hours of discussion with adults of reference in their areas;
- 1 to 2 hours of creative writing;
- 4 to 5 hours of leisure reading;
- 5 to 6 hours of homework completion;
- 2 to 3 hours helping peers with homework, projects, and skill acquisition;
- 4 to 5 hours of games and recreation using cognitive skills and allowing those skills to be shared.
Participants receive incentives for participating, and parents are encouraged to participate in certain activities, especially homework completion and reading sessions.

Impact evaluations

An impact evaluation showed that the scores of project participants were systematically higher than the scores of those in the control group. After 30 months of monitoring, the average score of the intervention group was 86.88, and that of the control group was 75.67 [1].
In terms of school attendance, after 30 months, the project group had fewer absences (2.19 days) compared to the control group (16.67 days). There were no significant differences between the groups with respect to the frequency of behavioral incidents [1].

Bibliographic reference

[1] Schinke, S. P., Cole, K. C. & Poulin, S. R. (2000). Enhancing the educational achievement of at-risk youth. Prevention Science: The Official Journal of the Society for Prevention Research, 1(1), 51–60. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010076000379

Information source