Lessons learned

Abstract

Having provided an account of our multiyear attempt to design, implement, and sustain Fifth Dimension-UC Links after-school programs and their associated courses in colleges and universities, it is time to return to our starting point to reflect on what we have accomplished, where we have failed, and the lessons others might draw from our experience. Our experience with the Fifth Dimension has strongly reinforced our belief that understanding issues of designing, implementing, and evaluating after-school activity programs requires constant attention not only to aspects of the activity designed for children but to the institutional arrangements that form the necessary context for the activity, as well as the historical and socio-ecological circumstances in which such efforts are carried out. Although all of these issues are simultaneously in play when we consider any example of an educational innovation, it is not possible to discuss them all at once. So for the sake of convenience, we discuss questions of design, implementation, evaluation, and socio-ecological circumstances sequentially. We end by discussing the contemporary circumstances of such efforts and their broader implications. Copyright © 2006 by Russell Sage Foundation. All rights reserved.