Afterschool programs that strive to be inclusive should remember to welcome participants with disabilities. A new instrument can help afterschool programs determine how well they are doing at including kids with disabilities and assess whether those providing the services—leaders and staff—overestimate their organization’s inclusiveness as compared to those who use the services.
As program evaluations become increasingly popular (and necessary), afterschool program evaluators seek appropriate evaluation methods. Focus groups with participants and staff offer a great deal of promise, but they also offer specific challenges that must be addressed in order to use this method successfully.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Nicole Schaefer-McDanielKimberly LibmanSarah Zeller-BerkmanKira Krenichyn
Self-assessment can be a powerful tool for evaluating program quality, yet the available self-assessment instruments do not comprehensively address practices that promote academic enrichment.
A review of studies on what constitutes high-quality afterschool programming concludes that the field is reaching consensus on its definitions of quality— which means that funders, policymakers, and providers increasingly have a sound basis on which to make informed decisions.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Kristi PalmerStephen AndersonRonald Sabatelli
This document describes the Dimensions of Success (DoS), an assessment tool created by researchers at the Program in Education, Afterschool, and Resiliency (PEAR). DoS was created to help out-of-school time programs and researchers monitor and measure quality. It allows observers to collect systemic data along 12 quality indicators to pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of afterschool science learning experiences.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Anahit PapazianAshima ShahCaitlin Rufo-McCormick
Although stakeholders agree that afterschool STEM education can be powerful, there is less agreement on the critical question of which aspects of STEM education the afterschool field is best positioned to support. Hence, in spring 2012, the Afterschool Alliance undertook a study to ask afterschool stakeholders what aspects of STEM learning the field is best positioned to support. The aim of the Afterschool STEM Outcomes Study was to identify consensus views on appropriate and feasible outcomes and indicators for afterschool STEM programs. The study provides a realistic vision of the field’s
Growing public and policy interest in the use of afterschool time has led to a need for research methods that allow investigators and stakeholders to examine and refine program models and activities. The case study method offers promise for afterschool research, but case study models must be refined in order to adequately study afterschool programming, which is characterized by collaboration among numerous stakeholders. “The Four Cs”—collaboration, communication, content, and coherence—provide one such framework. This method allows researchers who study afterschool education to respect its
This article follows the New York State Afterschool Network (NYSAN) as it develops a framework for program quality and related assessment tools. It suggests ways in which this framework can be useful to afterschool practitioners, technical assistance professionals, intermediaries, and policymakers nationwide.
This study aims to clarify primary school teacher students' experiences about the use of blogs in the context of a science course which includes collaborative inquiry-based approaches and a field trip. Teacher students were asked to design and conduct a small inquiry and report the phases of the process in a blog and then write their ideas about inquiry-based teaching and learning in it. The inquiry process was loosely scaffolded by linking the blogs together. The students were also asked to fill in a questionnaire of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), in order to acquire
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jari KukkonenSirpa KarkkainenTeemu ValtonenTuula Keinonen
In 2009, the North Carolina Virtual Public Schools worked with researchers at the William and Ida Friday Institute to produce and evaluate the use of game creation by secondary students as a means for learning content related to career awareness in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines, with particular emphasis in computer science areas. The study required the development of various forms of multimedia that were inclusive of content and activities delivered in a distance environment via the Internet. The team worked with a game art and design graduate class to
Viewers believe they are learning from giant screen films. But are they really learning, and what are they learning? This article reviews how evaluators look for learning impact and what evaluators have discovered aboutl learning from giant screen films and their adjunct materials.
In 2013, Shedd Aquarium launched a pilot Teacher Badging program with a set of Great Lakes Science Certified badges. Badges include Intro to Badging, Great Lakes Basics, Invasive Species Defined, Environmental Literacy, Science Literacy, and 21st Century Skills, culminating in the achievement of the Great Lakes Science Certified badge. Each badge includes 3-7 missions that teachers must complete to be awarded a given badge. As of December 31, 2013, 262 people have logged into the site, with 499.75 contact hours recorded in 1140 completed missions. The project was partially funded by the USDA
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TEAM MEMBERS:
John G. Shedd AquariumHeather SchneiderStephanie Bohr