Supplementary Education for Low-Income Youth: Saturday School at an African American Heritage Center. Research Report #7.

This study examined the effects of African-American preadolescent children attending Saturday programs on African heritage and history offered at an African-American heritage center located in their neighborhood. In the first year, the study planned, designed, and implemented the program on a trial basis at a local community center. The second year saw a modified implementation of the program. Children and staff were interviewed at the end of each year, and participant observation proceeded throughout the 2 years. Each year about 50 elementary school-age students were registered, with about 30 in regular attendance. Assessments of participants and control groups of non-participants at the end of years one and two indicated that attending the program increased knowledge of Africa, positive attitudes about Africa, and preferences for African and African-American materials in the school curriculum. Attendance was unrelated to the children's self-evaluations of their performance of the student role identity after year one and only weakly related to their school achievement test scores after year two. These results are interpreted in the context of three heuristic models of how supplementary education programs can raise the equational outcomes for at-risk youth, developing ethnic identity, student role identity, and academic interest. (Contains 38 references.) (Author/JB)