Scarce Grants For Selected Schools Allow For After School Enrichment

In Cobb County Schools, grants are given by the state for selected schools to enable after school programs to organize enrichment activities for students.

The Reach for the Stars Program (RSP) is an alternative to the After School Program (ASP) offered in a select few schools in Cobb County, being Baker Elementary, Kennesaw Elementary, and Big Shanty Elementary. RSP is an enrichment program offered after school that focuses on STEM subjects and technological literacy that is funded by state grants. 

“RSP is very structured. The RSP teachers come up with lesson plans, kind of like regular school,” said Baker Elementary RSP instructor Nick Girardeau. “And they teach things to students that are more STEM related, like technology.”

“ASP… is more like glorified babysitting,” said Girardeau.

A regular day in ASP, as described by Raechel Jarrett, is fairly simple. “We get our attendance sheet, and we go meet the kids at the classroom, and they all line up, and we take them to get their snacks. And if the weather’s nice, we will have them eat snacks outside. And if it’s not, then we eat snacks in the lunchroom. After that, they just play on the playground for a while. And once they start to get tired, we take them inside, we might watch an episode of something, then they either play on the iPads, color, draw or play.”

The question arises, if RSP is that much better, why don’t all schools offer RSP? The answer is, because the instructors are paid directly from the grant, and there’s only so much money allocated for the program.

The selection process, as explained by Girardeau, is as follows: “Essentially, a county writes grants for schools, and then the state decides which schools that they’re actually going to fund. As far as I know, it’s just based on how much money they have.”

RSP has proven to be more beneficial to students than ASP, since there are typically no enrichment activities offered in ASP. “In terms of student performance, where RSP is, there tends to be higher test scores,” said Girardeau. “It improves the student body, but I think it’s more of a detriment to the state because RSP is much more expensive to fund, because the staff members get paid more.”

The reason staff members are paid more in RSP, which is typically one or two instructors, is because of their qualifications and the work they are doing. As explained by Baker Elementary ASP instructor Erin Hilsman, “the instructors have to do so much more work. They have to plan a lesson, get the lessons approved and collect materials and things of that nature. They get paid $23 an hour. And then ASP gets paid $15.”
According to the Wausau School Foundation, the grant is not much; only up to $2,000 for a school, which explains why there are typically only one to two instructors. Theoretically, ASP instructors are perfectly capable of offering their own enrichment activities, but there is one thing holding them back. “You just have to do the organizing yourself… but you have to get it approved and they want you to have a degree.” said Hilsman. ASP instructors are often students pursuing degrees, such as Hilsman and Jarrett.