STUDENTS BENEFIT BY PROGRAMS REPORT: AFTER-SCHOOL EFFORTS HELP KIDS LEARN.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Staff Writer

Los Angeles Unified students who participate in after-school learning programs show greater improvements in reading and math scores, have better attendance and are more well-behaved, a state report released Friday says.

Elementary school kids are not the only ones who gain. The report shows that at-risk middle school students who participated in after-school programs improve in academic achievement and behavior while students who did not attend were more likely to slip up.

``The after-school programs for middle school students in Los Angeles are changing the nature of the experiences of at-risk youth during off- school hours and having a marked effect of increasing their opportunity for success,'' said Joan Bissell, vice chair of the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine, who prepared the report.

The second annual evaluation of California's After School Learning and Safe Neighborhoods Partnerships Program was released by State Superintendent Delaine Eastin. The $117 million program serves about 97,000 students in 963 public schools statewide.

Los Angeles Unified receives about $13 million in state funding - part of its $63 million budget to provide after-school learning programs in 125 schools for 35,000 students, as well as to offer recreational activities in all 514 elementary and middle schools for 75,000 kids.

``Many of these youngsters when they go home at 3 in the afternoon, mom and dad are working and no one is home,'' said John Liechty, LAUSD's assistant superintendent of extended-day programs. ``If you can keep them engaged during out-of-school time, you can keep them out of harm's way.''

LA's BEST - the 14-year-old partnership between the school district, the city and private donors to reach the city's poorest kids - figured largely in the report. Bissell said the program has become a nationally recognized model for elementary schools.

The program, now in 100 elementary schools including 34 in the San Fernando Valley, provides students help with their homework and academic enrichment activities as well as recreational programs.

The report showed higher participation correlated with achievement on standardized tests in math, reading and language arts as well as school attendance, and students who participated in the program in elementary grades ended up having significantly fewer absences in grades 6 and 7.

``We have been able to attract the children with the greatest needs and fewest resources,`` said Carla Sanger, president and CEO who helped found the program with then-Mayor Tom Bradley.

``These are the kids who would otherwise have fallen through the cracks.''

Los Angeles Unified middle school programs at eight schools - six of which were in the San Fernando Valley - also figured largely into the evaluation. A program at Lawrence Middle School in Chatsworth, for instance, showed a statistically significant difference in SAT-9 math scores among English language learners who participated in the program when compared to those who did not.