Accountability and results have been at the cornerstone of the LA's BEST After School Enrichment Program since its inception in 1988. Early on, LA's BEST began dedicating significant funding toward evaluation and independent research. Since 1990, LA's BEST has commissioned the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST) and the Center for the Study of Evaluation (CSE) at University of California, Los Angeles, to evaluate our program to measure its impact both quantitatively and qualitatively.
In June 2000, UCLA / CSE released an evaluation titled "A Decade of Results: The Impact of the LA's BEST After School Enrichment Program on Subsequent Student Achievement and Performance" which included a synthesis of research and results from five prior evaluations. Data sources for this groundbreaking longitudinal study involved archival measures of achievement, reports of absences in middle school, redesignation as English language proficient, course—taking patterns and intensity of participation in LA's BEST. Data on all variables, except participation in LA's BEST for more than 20,000 elementary school students, were obtained through the assistance of Los Angeles Unified School District. Findings reveal that LA's BEST children:
- Show significant improvement in grades
- Show improved performance on standardized tests in mathematics, reading and language arts
- Have higher school attendance rates
- Have higher English language redesignation rates
- Like regular school more
- Feel safer
- Demonstrate positive behavior changes
- See a future for them selves that includes higher education
- Welcome the help of adults in problem solving
Contact:
Daryl Niemerow
office (213) 978-0798
cell (310) 429-5682
New! What We've Learned: A Review of Recent Reports for LA's BEST by UCLA-CRESST. Download the Full report in Adobe Acrobat format
“Most impressively, LA's BEST has shown longitudinally its positive impact on key issues facing families and communities including safety, homework assistance, better achievement, staying in school, and enrichment programs including access to the arts.”
– Terry Peterson
Former Chief Counselor to the former U.S. Secretary of Education Riley
