This report examines the program improvement strategies, step-by-step, that allowed The James Irvine Foundation's Communities Organizing to Advance Learning (CORAL) initiative to achieve the levels of quality needed to boost the academic success of participating students, and makes policy and funding suggestions for improving program performance. For most of their history, after-school programs served primarily as sources of child care and, more recently, as places where children had the opportunity to participate in new, enriching cultural or recreational activities. The past 10 to 15 years, however, have brought a significant shift in this role. Public and private funders are increasingly investing in after-school programs with the goal of improving students' academic performance. The relatively recent nature of this shift means that there is little conclusive research on how after-school programs can be best positioned to impact academic achievement. The aim of this report is to contribute to this growing field by suggesting an answer to this question. Although literacy instruction was CORAL's core academic component, the lessons in this report may be applicable to a variety of settings. Additional Resources for Program Improvement are appended. (Contains 24 endnotes, 2 figures and 2 tables.)