- Academic Success

The Club Impacts Acdemic Success
The Club helps members graduate from high school ready for college, trade school, military or employment.

"Our goal is simple to state but hard to achieve," said Denzel Washington, BGCA’s national spokesperson. "We want to help every Boys & Girls Club member advance to the next grade level every year and graduate from high school on time, prepared with the attitude, knowledge and confidence to succeed and achieve."

We believe that providing learning opportunities, holding high expectations for members and recognizing accomplishments are ways to ensure that kids are successful academically. The Boys & Girls Club plays a powerful role in making after school and summer a time for learning and developmental gains for young people.

Our Impact:

Soon, more than half of all new jobs will require more than a high school diploma, yet more than a quarter of U.S. students are not finishing high school. America has fallen to ninth in the proportion of young people with a college degree. (See chart on graduation rates in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana and U.S. at bottom of page.)

The Boys & Girls Club is a part of the solution. The Club is working to impact key indicators for youth of all ages that will make high school graduation a most likely outcome: ontime grade progression, third grade reading levels, standardized test scores, and regular school attendance. These indicators of a child's progess throughout their school years give us a picture of the likelihood of high school graduation. Boys & Girls Club plans programs and activities to impact these indicators.

Third Grade Reading Levels:

Summer learning loss contributes to poor academic performance. It widens the achievement gap between these students and their more advantaged peers and contributes to their likelihood of dropping out of high school ( American Sociological Review).

Clubs have a direct impact on summer learning because members spend more time in the Club during the summer. In the summer of 2010, Boys & Girls Club members increased their reading level by three months during the six week program.

Higher LEAP Scores for Fourth Grade Members:

Each year, fourth and eighth grade students participate in the state’s Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) – a series of tests that determines whether they will be required to attend summer school or be retained. LEAP scores have become a standard measurement to gage success of our education systems by school, parish and state.

Fourth and eighth grade Club members are more likely to pass standardized tests, like the LEAP Test, than their peers.

Regular School Attendance:

It is proven that for Club members who attend the Club regularly after school they have decreased time skipping sc hool, increased academic confidence, higher levels of community service involvement, increased levels of integrity, increase connectedness and deceased number of negative peers ( Public/Private Ventures study of BGC, 2009). Boys & Girls Club works with schools and parents to ensure youth attend school regularly.

On-time Grade Progression:

We tracked middle school Club members entering our program in 2006-07 school year. In 2011 ninety-five percent of these members were promoted to the next grade level on-time and are on track for their high school graduation. This is significant when compared to a parish graduation rate of only 43.9%. (source: www.edweek.org)

Graduation rates were determined using the cummulative promotion index (CPI). The CPI represents the high school experience as a process reather than a single event, capturing the key steps a student must take in order to graduate: three grade-to-grade promotions (9 to 10, 10 to 11, and 11-12) and ultimately earning a diploma 9grade 12-graduation).