The Harvard Family Research Project separated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to become the Global Family Research Project as of January 1, 2017. It is no longer affiliated with Harvard University.

Terms of Use ▼

• Permission to Use Materials: In consideration for your agreement to the terms and conditions contained here, the President and Fellows of Harvard College, c/o the Harvard Graduate School of Education, grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access and use Harvard Family Research Project publications hosted on the Global Family Research Project Site.
• User may download material from the Site only for User's own personal, non-commercial use. User may not otherwise copy, reproduce, retransmit, distribute, publish, commercially exploit or otherwise transfer any material. The burden of determining that use of any information, software or any other content on the Site is permissible rests with User.
• User will seek permission or licensing for any commercial use requests from the Harvard Graduate School of Education Office of Sponsored Projects.

• Home
• Research Areas
  • Complementary Learning
  • Family Involvement
  • Out-of-School Time
  • Early Childhood Education
  • Evaluation
  • Other Research Areas
• Publications & Resources
  • Search Publications
  • Browse Our Publications
  • Publications Series
  • Copyright and Reprint Permissions
• HFRP News
  • News & Announcements
  • Blog: New Directions in Family Engagement
  • In the Media

• Complementary Learning
• Family Involvement
• Out-of-School Time
• Early Childhood Education
• Evaluation
  • Overview
  • Projects
  • The Evaluation Exchange
  • Publications & Resources
• Other Research Areas

• Large text size
• Normal text size
• Small text size

Volume 3, September 2008 Research Update 3: Highlights From the Out-of-School Time Database Erin Harris Download a PDF of this publication (137 kb) | View all publications in this series

Inside this Research Update: How programs use evaluation to inform their programming and serve older youth and their families

This Research Update explores two major themes: Using evaluation to shape program improvement and planning, and out-of-school time benefits to older youth and their families. We culled these themes from 13 research and evaluation reports added to the Out-of-School Time (OST) Program Research and Evaluation Bibliography in September 2008.

Using Evaluation to Shape Program Improvement and Planning
Increasing demands for accountability have led many OST staff to use evaluation to demonstrate their programs’ value to stakeholders. These same evaluations have great potential to shape program improvement and planning. But, in many instances, accountability demands leave staff with little time and few resources to examine how evaluations can improve the quality of their programs. Several of the studies in this review, however, succeed in using evaluation both to demonstrate their programs’ value and to strive for continuous improvement.

OST Benefits to Older Youth and Their Families
Until recently, much OST programming and related research has focused on serving elementary school-age children, with less attention paid to middle and high school-age youth. At an age when they are beginning to become more independent, teens still need to have some structure and guidance, even as they gain greater independence. Increasingly, stakeholders in the OST arena are coming to see after school programs as an underutilized asset to improve outcomes for older youth in such areas as academics, prevention, and workforce readiness.

About This Series
This series provides key insights from each update to the OST Database and Bibliography. These Research Updates highlight new and innovative methods and findings in the increasingly sophisticated, growing field of OST research and evaluation.