A funny thing is happening at Riverton Community School. Instead of rushing out at the end of the school day, kids are choosing to stay.

After years of disappointing test scores put the school on the list of persistently low performers in the state, the people at Riverton are doing things differently. Instead of being defensive and making excuses, the teachers and administration have chosen to take advantage of a $1.3 million improvement grant offered by the U.S. Department of Education.

Some of that money is being used for an extended school day, in which students are invited to stay behind for help with their homework, followed by a choice of clubs and activities, including music lessons and cooking.

The idea of the extended school day comes from research that shows what goes on after school can have a big effect on what happens in the classroom. Students who are excited and engaged with an outside activity often perform better in their core subjects.

This is especially true for immigrant children, for whom extra time speaking English, regardless of the subject, is beneficial to their mastery of the language.

The program is delivered by the local nonprofit Learning Works, and is modeled on other successful after-school programs. If it is successful in boosting student performance at Riverton, it should be made a standard practice throughout the city.

These programs are valuable not just because they keep unsupervised children from wasting time staring at TV or computer screens. Engaging co-curricular programs have been shown to reinforce what children learn during the school day and should become a standard part of the education practice.

There’s a lot of interesting things going on at Riverton this year, and it’s not just the students who are learning.