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The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a local afterschool program in helping underserved elementary school students improve their reading achievement. The study followed a cohort of students with 28 participants who were low-income, ethnic minority children in the 1st–6th grades between the ages of 6 and 12. Data on students’ developmental assets and school progress were collected at two different time points. Overall, students showed increased perceptions of efficacy about having the ability and skills to do well on a task and getting good grades in school, as well as improvements in reading achievement over time. While changes in homework completion predicted changes in reading achievement, changes in efficacy beliefs and program exposure did not. Results suggest that teacher perceptions of homework completion may be an important pathway through which afterschool programs can help narrow the reading achievement gap experienced by ethnic minority students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Empowering children with the knowledge to critically analyze text for messages related to power, privilege, and social inequality is essential for inspiring within them the desire to become informed and compassionate citizens, as well as agents of social change. To this end, the current chapter will provide elementary school educators with an instructional framework for guiding children to become critical consumers of knowledge, where students find comfort in actively questioning the vision, voice, and message presented in text, as opposed to succumbing to a writer’s point of view without thoughtful resistance. The pedagogical properties of critical literacy will be discussed as they relate to how children can be encouraged to challenge the ideas and concepts presented in text. Also, critical literacy will be discussed in relation to multicultural literature, which can provide a platform for exploring a variety of sociocultural and political issues with children. Multicultural literature is particularly useful for exploring issues related to the intersection of culture, ethnicity, gender, and other personal characteristics that impact an individual’s social standing in multiple contexts. Specific instructional strategies will be discussed as they relate to guiding children’s endorsement of an anti-biased perspective and egalitarian values. Educators could use the chapter to shape their social justice agendas and give children the gift of voice.

To ensure that families get the childcare services they need, Sacramento County created the Quality Child Care Collaborative (QCCC). The QCCC is a partnership of several agencies focused on improving the quality of child care provided to children and their families. The QCCC practices can be worked into other childcare programs; other counties and states can benefit from emulating the QCCC’s actions, collabora-tion, and aims.