Publications by Charles Smith

The Adult Rating of Youth (ARY) asks staff to rate children’s and youths’ optimal socioemotional behavioral skills based on behaviors displayed during program activities, as observed during several program offering sessions. ARY scores are good indicators of how children and youth are likely to perform in settings where they are well supported. Staff should observe each child or youth for at least four hours of program activities before using the ARY. The ARY can be used as a pre-test for program planning purposes and, also, as a post-test for assessing socio-emotional skill growth.

The Adult Rating of Youth Behavior (ARYB) asks staff to rate children’s and youth’s socio-emotional skills based on behaviors displayed within out-of-school time settings, as observed during several program sessions. ARYB scores are good indicators of how children and youth are likely to perform in settings where they are well supported. Staff should observe each child or youth for at least four program hours before using the ARYB.

This report describes the experiences and practices of Genesee Intermediate School District: Bridges to Success (GISD) Team Leads and direct staff serving children and families after substantially redesigning afterschool programming due to the COVID-19 crisis.

This research article discusses efforts to define and improve the quality of afterschool services, highlighting areas of agreement and identifying leading-edge issues. We conclude that the afterschool field is especially well positioned to deliver high-quality services and demonstrate effectiveness at scale because a strong foundation has been built for continuous improvement of service quality.

This paper, published in the Fall 2008 edition of Afterschool Matters: Occasional Paper Series, describes community partnerships in Michigan’s 21st CCLC programs.

This guide offers case studies that explain how cities and intermediaries can work with afterschool providers across a neighborhood, city, or region to build quality into the programs that are part of an afterschool system.

This two-page information sheet explains youth profiles for SEL skills (low, moderate, and exemplary) as they relate to schemas, beliefs, and attention. Created as a supplement to QTurn’s impact report for the Newark Trust for Education Project (NTE) Parent Child Plus (PC+) program, this overview explains how various measurements are tied to key outcomes.

The David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality conducted a three year intervention study to examine the Youth Program Quality Intervention (YPQI). The YPQI is a data-driven continuous improvement model for school and community-based sites serving youth during afterschool hours.

This paper describes implementation and outcomes for QIS in school-based summer learning programs in multiple cities.

This paper describes validity of QIS performance measures and longitudinal change over four years in Oklahoma 21st CCLC programs.

This report exemplifies use of the suite of SEL measures and benchmarks in the American Youth Circus Organizations network.

Overall 24 sites within 17 grantees participated in the self-assessment pilot study by assembling staff teams to collect data and score the Youth Program Quality Assessment (PQA). Youth PQA data collected using the self-assessment method demonstrated promising patterns of both internal consistency and concurrent validity with aligned youth survey responses.

In this policy commentary, we do some reasoning about how 21st CCLC produces value and discuss the limitations in one particular way of seeing that value – the intent-to-treat impact evaluation design.

A program quality assessment for 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) and other community-based programs that transitioned virtual, socially distanced in-person, and blended service models. This manual includes: Tool Introduction, Protocol, Standards and Indicators, FAQ, Promising Practices, Method for Development, and Contributors.

We sought to answer two specific questions about implementation and children’s SEL skill growth: What is the impact of QIS exposure on program quality (i.e., best practices, low staff turnover, great content), particularly for programs that have lower program quality at baseline? What is the impact of exposure to high program quality on student SEL skills?