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Impact of Experience Corps® Participation on School Climate

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Abstract

We examined the impact of the Experience Corps® (EC) program on school climate within Baltimore City public elementary schools. In this program, teams of older adult volunteers were placed in high intensity (>15 h per week), meaningful roles in public elementary schools, to improve the educational outcomes of children as well as the health and well-being of volunteers. During the first year of EC participation, school climate was perceived more favorably among staff and students in EC schools as compared to those in comparison schools. However, with a few notable exceptions, perceived school climate did not differ for staff or students in intervention and comparison schools during the second year of exposure to the EC program. These findings suggest that perceptions of school climate may be altered by introducing a new program into elementary schools; however, research examining how perceptions of school climate are impacted over a longer period is warranted.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by funding from the following sources: the National Institute on Aging (P01 AG027735-03), the Weinberg Foundation, and state and federal AmeriCorps grants. We would also like to thank the Baltimore City Public School System for all of their efforts in helping us acquire and interpret the academic and behavioral outcomes data.

Dr. Erwin J. Tan is with the Corporation for National and Community Service. This manuscript represents work done while Dr. Tan was at the Johns Hopkins Center on Aging and Health. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not represent the official position of the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Jeanine M. Parisi, Christine M. Ramsey, Michelle C. Carlson & George W. Rebok

  2. Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, Center for Innovative Care in Aging, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Jeanine M. Parisi, Michelle C. Carlson, Elizabeth K. Tanner & George W. Rebok

  3. Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Michelle C. Carlson, Qian-Li Xue, Jin Huang, Elizabeth K. Tanner & George W. Rebok

  4. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Qian-Li Xue, William A. Romani & Jeremy Barron

  5. Greater Homewood Community Corporation, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Sylvia McGill

  6. The University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Teresa E. Seeman

  7. Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Elizabeth K. Tanner

  8. Corporation for National and Community Service, Washington, DC, USA

    Erwin J. Tan

  9. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Tara L. Gruenewald

  10. Office of Assessment and Accountability, Baltimore City Public School System, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Ike Diibor

  11. Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Linda P. Fried

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  1. Jeanine M. Parisi
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  14. Linda P. Fried
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  15. George W. Rebok
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Correspondence to Jeanine M. Parisi.

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Parisi, J.M., Ramsey, C.M., Carlson, M.C. et al. Impact of Experience Corps® Participation on School Climate. Prev Sci 16, 744–753 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-015-0550-2

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