Publication Author: Samantha Sugar

The STEM supplement to the Youth Program Quality Assessment

Introduction

curricula from the fields of environmental science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (“STEM”) at 10 sites(one partner delivered the same curriculum at two sites). The offerings were organized at 10 school-based Afterzone sites and each offering included field work in the local Providence region. Across the 10 sites, STEM curricula were delivered to a total of approximately 250 middle school students (about 25 students per Afterzone section).

In order to evaluate the Afterzone Summer Scholars model and collect information for future improvement, PASA (a) hired an external evaluator for the project; (b) committed to providing continuous improvement supports to participating program managers and content providers (quality assessment and coaching); and (c) formed an evaluation advisory board to monitor the development and implementation of the external evaluation. In addition, PASA contracted with the David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality (Weikart Center) at the Forum for Youth Investment to develop an observation-based measure of instructional practices to support continuous improvement during STEM programming. This report describes the process of development of the STEM supplement to the Youth Program Quality Assessment (Youth PQA; HighScope, 2005) and preliminary reliability and validity evidence based on data collected during Afterzone Summer Scholars program.

Continuous Quality Improvement in Afterschool Settings: Impact Findings from the Youth Program Quality Intervention Study

Abstract

Background: Out-of-school time programs can have positive effects on young people’s development; however, programs do not always produce such effects. The quality of instructional practices is logically a key factor but quality improvement interventions must be understood within a multi-level framework including policy, organization, and point of service if they are to be both effective and scalable.

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of the Youth Program Quality Intervention (YPQI), a data-driven continuous improvement model for afterschool systems. Research questions include:

  • Does the YPQI increase managers’ focus on instruction and the use of continuous improvement practices by site-based teams?
  • Does the YPQI improve the quality of afterschool instruction?
  • Does the YPQI increase staff tenure?
  • Can the YPQI be taken to scale across programs that vary widely in terms of structure, purposes, and funding and using resources available to public agencies and community-based organizations?
  • Will afterschool organizations implement the YPQI under lower stakes conditions where compliance with the model is focused on the improvement process rather than attainment of pre-determined quality ratings?

Participants: Eighty-seven afterschool sites in five diverse afterschool networks participated in the study. Each site employed the equivalent of one full-time program manager and between two and ten direct staff; had an average annual enrollment of 216 youth; and had an average daily attendance of 87 youth.

Research Design: This is a cluster randomized trial. Within each of the five networks, between 17 and 21 sites were randomly assigned to an intervention (N=43) or control group (N=44). Survey data were collected from managers, staff, and youth in all sites at baseline prior to randomization (spring 2006), at the end of the implementation year of the study (spring 2007) and again at the end of the follow-up year (spring 2008). External observers rated instructional practices at baseline and at the end of the implementation year. Implementation data were collected from both intervention and control groups. Hierarchical linear models were used to produce impact estimates.

Findings: The impacts of the YPQI on the central outcome variables were positive and statistically significant. The YPQI produced gains in continuous improvement practices with effect sizes of .98 for managers and .52 for staff. The YPQI improved the quality of staff instructional practices, with an effect size of .55. Higher implementation of continuous improvement practices was associated with higher levels of instructional quality, with effects nearly three times greater than the overall experimental impact. Level of implementation was sustained in intervention group sites in the follow-up year.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates that a sequence of continuous improvement practices implemented by a site-based team – standardized assessment of instruction, planning for improvement, coaching from a site manager, and training for specific instructional methods – improves the quality of instruction available to children and youth. The YPQI produces a cascade of positive effects beginning with the provision of standards, training, and technical assistance, flowing through managers and staff implementation of continuous improvement practices, and resulting in effects on staff instructional practices. Evidence also suggests that participation in the YPQI may increase the length of staff tenure and that YPQI impacts are both sustainable and scalable.

Quality and Accountability in the Out-of-School Time Sector

In the fragmented out-of-school-time sector, defining and measuring quality in terms of staff behaviors at the point of service provides a common framework that can reduce obstacles to cross-sector and cross-program performance improvement efforts and streamline adoption of data-driven accountability policies. This chapter views the point of service, that is, the microsettings where adults and youth purposefully interact, as the critical unit of study because it is ubiquitous across out-of-school-time programs and because it is the place where key developmental experiences are intentionally delivered. However, because point-of-service behaviors are embedded within multilevel systems where managers set priorities and institutional incentives constrain innovation, effective quality interventions must contend with and attend to this broader policy environment. The Youth Program Quality Assessment (Youth PQA) is one of an emerging class of observational assessment tools that measure staff performances at the point of service and, depending on methodology of use, can help create the conditions that managers and youth workers need to accept, adopt, and sustain accountability initiatives. Observational assessment tools can be flexible enough to be used for program self-assessment (appropriate for low-stakes, non-normative learning purposes), external assessment (appropriate for higher stakes, normative comparisons, and performance accountability), and various hybrids that combine elements from each. We provide advice for decision makers regarding how to most effectively use the Youth PQA and similar measurement tools depending on the articulation of clear purposes for which accountability and improvement policies are enacted and effective sequencing of implementation.

Linking Management Practices to Instructional Performances in OST Organizations

Abstract

Youth participation in after-school settings has been linked to numerous positive outcomes but this is inconsistent across studies. Two necessary ingredients for this link are proposed: appropriate instructional practices and youth engagement. Both are profiled user cluster analysis in a dataset including observations of staff instructional practices in 151 youth program offerings and 1176 surveys from youth attending these offerings. Instructional practice profiles suggest patterns corresponding to positive youth development (PYD), staff-centered (SC), and low quality. Youth engagement profiles range from low to medium to high, and further vary across perceived learning and voice. Cross-tabulations reveal strong positive links between PYD and high engagement and between low-quality and low engagement; and strong negative links between PYD and low engagement and between low-quality and high engagement.