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Resource Guide |
This is a companion guide to the report,
Putting It All Together: Guiding
Principles for Quality After-School Programs Serving Preteens.
Overview
Commissioned by the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health (the
Foundation), Public/Private Ventures developed six guiding principles
for after-school program quality based on lessons learned by the Foundation
and a literature review (see Putting
It All Together: Guiding Principles for Quality After-School Programs
Serving Preteens). They were selected because they 1) have documented
associations with positive emotional and behavioral health outcomes for
participants and 2) can be implemented at a program level. In most cases,
the elements of quality identified were based on studies of after-school
programs that served both elementary- and middle-school children; therefore,
the standards for quality are generally applicable to both age groups.
The six principles are:
- Focused and Intentional Strategy
(target specific skills, well-planned): Programs have a clear set of
goals, target specific skills and deliberately plan all aspects of the
program with the youth development framework in mind.
- Exposure (duration, intensity
and breadth): Programs are designed to: a) provide preteens with a “dosage,”
or number of hours per week over an extended period of time, that matches
program outcome goals; and b) allow preteens to attend a variety of
activities.
- Supportive Relationships:
Programs emphasize positive adult-youth relationships regardless of
the curriculum.
- Family Engagement: Programs
strive to include families through various strategies, such as clear
communication and a welcoming environment.
- Cultural Competence: Programs
have diverse staff who are responsive to participants, create practices
and policies that make services available to (and are inclusive of)
a variety of populations and help participants understand and value
all people.
- Continuous Program Improvement
(targeted staff training, monitoring and coaching, data collection and
analysis): Programs strengthen quality through an ongoing and integrated
process of targeted staff training, coaching and monitoring, and data
collection and analyses.
For each principle, this guide provides a description, some examples
of what successful implementation of that principle looks like for a program,
and a list of resources to learn more about the relevant research and
ways to improve in each area. The examples are illustrative and do not
provide a full set of indicators of successful implementation. In addition,
the list of resources is not exhaustive; the intent of the guide is to
highlight the most current and/or relevant research for each principle,
including information on how to strengthen programs according to the principles.
The sixth principle, Continuous Program Improvement, includes a section
on self-assessment and evaluation tools. Using a tool provides a systematic
way of looking at program quality—an important aspect of the improvement
process.
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