Transcript Slide 1
Afterschool Partnership For Greater New Orleans November 2008 Provider Meeting
2008 SUMMER PROGRAM RESEARCH Expanding Capacity, Improving Quality: Meeting the Needs of Programs, Youth, Families, and Communities
Lauren J. Bierbaum, Ph.D.
Agenda
• What is “quality”?
• Why research?
• Methods of our 2008 Research • Findings • Next steps
What Is “QUALITY”?
Quality means… • Making efforts to praise successes….
• …While not being afraid to examine, learn from, and rectify challenges.
• Constantly adapting to the current landscape and the changing needs of our youth, their families, and our communities • Not just “doing,” but “doing WELL.” And, we don’t have to re-invent the wheel!
What Is “QUALITY”?
“Proven” or “Best” Practices
The techniques, methods, processes, and activities that are known to be effective at achieving particular outcomes.
What’s come before, what’s been tried and tested, what we have learned will work.
What Is “QUALITY”?
“Proven” or “Best” Practices Seasonal Learning
• Summer achievement gap • Disparities in OST opportunities “Children in all socioeconomic groups are learning at the
same rate during the school year, and nearly all the differences in achievement between poor and middle-class children are rooted in the inequities that young people experience outside the schoolhouse door.”
- Beth Miller, “The Learning Season”
What Is “QUALITY”?
“Proven” or “Best” Practices Benefits of OST Programming (summer and school-year)
• Academic outcomes • Socio-behavioral outcomes • Emotional outcomes
“Research suggests that youth who participate in afterschool programs improve significantly in 3 major areas: (1) feelings and attitudes; (2) increased indicators of behavior adjustment; and (3) increased school and
achievement test scores.” - NIOST, “Making the Case: 2008 Fact Sheet”
What Is “QUALITY”?
“Proven” or “Best” Practices Program Operations
• Logistics management and communications • Curriculum • Fund-raising and budgeting • Staffing “Staff costs [are] the primary cost driver for OST programs.” - Grossman et al., “Cost of Quality OST Programs”
Programs that pay staff more, and employ highly qualified staff, have better youth outcomes.
- Pearson et al., “Evaluation of OST Programs” for NYDYCD
What Is “QUALITY”?
“Proven” or “Best” Practices Municipal Support
• Afterschool Partnership Funding Map • Community Development Block Grant Funds • Cities such as NYC, Denver, Philadelphia, Providence, Kansas City with citywide OST organizations, municipal OST entities, and/or publicly funded quality assessments
What Is “QUALITY”?
“Proven” or “Best” Practices Data-Driven Decision-Making
“New and existing research reveals that two-thirds of the achievement gap between lower- and higher income youth can be explained by unequal access to summer learning opportunities.”
- National Center for Summer Learning
There is “a growing investment in research, for purposes ranging from continuous improvement to accountability” in the OST field.
- Harvard Family Research Project
So…Why RESEARCH?
To find out what we HAVE
Current capacity – How many programs? Serving how many kids? Providing what services?
To find out what we NEED
Current barriers to quality
To find out what we WANT
How do we build our programs to succeed beyond imagination?
SUMMER 2008 RESEARCH: Methods
Summer 2008 Research Our Research Goals
Explore QUALITY and CAPACITY of existing programs: • Subset of 16 programs • Range of missions, program operations • Needs assessments • Quality assessments • Vision for growth
Summer 2008 Research Our Research Goals
Explore CONSUMER thoughts and feelings about: • OST (summer and afterschool) landscape • Range of options • Likes and dislikes • Barriers to access • Vision for change
Summer 2008 Research Participating Sites:
•Boys/Girls Club NFL-YET Center •Marine Missionary Baptist Church •Catholic Charities-NORD Behrman Gym •Cops For Kids •Nehemiah 20/20 All That for Kids •New Orleans Outreach-KIPP McDonogh 15 •Desire Street Ministries •Dryades YMCA •Jefferson Youth Foundation •Kedila Family Learning Center •Kingsley House •Pentecost Baptist Church •Urban League College Track •Volunteers of America-Capdau •YMCA-GNO (Metairie) •YOUTHanasia Teen Non-Violence Center
Summer 2008 Research Site Observations Quality Advisor Rating Tool
Modified from SACERS, National Afterschool Association’s Advancing School-Age Care Quality Self-Study Process; High Scope’s Youth Program
Quality Assessment (PQA)
Validated, widely used scales to assess holistically the quality of youth environments
Summer 2008 Research Site Observations: Quality Advisor Rating Tool
Allows for observations of youth “in situ” as they interact with both the PHYSICAL and SOCIAL environments of their summer programs
Summer 2008 Research Focus Groups
• Explore motivations, opinions behind opinions • Help inform the planning and design of new programs or program elements • Evaluate existing programs/program elements • Produce insights for next steps (program design, outreach, education, advocacy platforms)
FINDINGS: What do PROGRAMS have to say?
Findings: What Programs Have to Say Greatest Needs Across Sites:
Facilities •Dedicated spaces •Classroom •Recreation – Pools!
Transportation •Dedicated transportation •Better drop-off/pick-up •Better signage •Lower-cost options Equipment, supplies, and food •Academic •Recreation •Support for healthful breakfast, lunch, snacks
Findings: What Programs Have to Say Greatest Needs Across Sites:
Curricular Support •Academic rigor •Training •Alignment with grant requirements Staff Support •Hiring •Training •Continuity of care Sustainability •Grant-writing •Resource identification and allocation •Budget management
Findings: What Programs Have to Say Greatest Needs Across Sites: “Proven” or “Best” Practices
• Access to resources • Curricular support • Access to cutting-edge research • Program evaluation support
Findings: What Programs Have to Say Now what?
Real-time Quality Advising and Program Adaptations
•
Age appropriateness
•
Scheduling
•
Communication (internal and external)
•
Professional mentorship for program directors, site coordinators, and staff
•
Building upon current practices to foster
BEST PRACTICES
FINDINGS: What do YOUTH and FAMILIES have to say?
Findings: What Youth and Families Have to Say Barriers to Access
• Transportation • Cost • Registration processes • Availability • Continuity of participation (from school to summer, and across summers)
Findings: What Youth and Families Have to Say Athletics and Recreation
• Wider variety of options Soccer, volleyball, horseback riding, more swimming • More equipment • Better facilities • Sometimes health related, but mostly
EXPERIENTIAL
•
Skate park
Findings: What Youth and Families Have to Say Arts and Culture
More of everything!
• Art supplies and instruments • Direct instruction (voice, instrumental, dance, fine arts) and participation in creating original works • Field trips (to attend performances, visit museums, meet working artists) • Professional development
Findings: What Youth and Families Have to Say Workforce Development
• Field trips to places of business: courts, juvenile justice, media, law firms, medical practices, alternatives to “tennis shoes on the wire.” • Internships and job placement support • Information about careers in the military • Technological education and training • Training in entrepreneurship
Findings: What Youth and Families Have to Say Academics
• Kids want to learn….
…but not at desks, not in classrooms, not like school • Parents AND youth want applied and alternative approaches to learning: creative, hands on, youth-
driven, project-based
“If school could be like this, I’d come every day, even if I were sick!”
Findings: What Youth and Families Have to Say Prosocial Development
• Social aspects of programming – social skill building, conflict resolution, socializing with new and old friends • Identity development, exploration of self • Broadened horizons – new neighborhoods, new experiences, travel to “places we’ve studied in social studies,” because “not every place is like New Orleans” and “we ain’t never been out of the Southern states!”
Findings: What Youth and Families Have to Say Prosocial Development
• Parents report their children are less shy, more confident, and more likely to engage in verbal conflict resolution thanks to summer programs • Parents also appreciate the geographic, racial/ethnic, and economic diversity to which summer programs expose their children • Parents are grateful for programs that provide their children with “more balanced preparation for the future,” that “give kids a broader spectrum of options,” that keep kids “on the straight and narrow” so that they “keep the mind off crime, keep them focused.”
“Our children grow up so fast, I wish we could find a way to give them true childhoods - flying kites, going fishing, let the sun beat them up. Because when they hit a certain age, you can’t go back.”
- BGC/NFL-YET Father
Now what?
• Real-time program changes • Quality Advising and Program Evaluation Support Building Afterschool Partnership’s capacity to provide ongoing, targeted, high-quality support to programs • Trainings in Development (2009) • • Communications infrastructure Staff orientation • Health and safety • Best practices for fostering positive youth development
Now what?
• Building adjacencies to school year programming • Exploring feasibility of implementing youth and family suggestions for program changes • Relationship-building with funders Special thanks to the Wallace Foundation for recognizing the amazing work y’all do, and for caring about our kids as much as we do.
• Compiling and disseminating resources (informational, financial, in-kind)
Resources and References:
Afterschool Partnership for Greater New Orleans www.gnoafterschool.org
504.304.9591
Grossman, J.B. et al. (forthcoming) The Cost of Quality Out-of-School-Time Programs.
Harvard Family Research Project’s Out of School Time Database and
Bibliography
http://www.hfrp.org/out-of-school-time Miller, B. (2007) The Learning Season: The Untapped Power of Summer to Advance Student Achievement.
National Institute for Out of School Time (NIOST) http://www.niost.org/ National Center for Summer Learning http://www.summerlearning.org/ Pearson et al. (2007) Evaluation of OST Programs for Youth. Prepared for New York City Department of Youth and Community Development.