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.
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Evaluating the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program—A View From the States
Erin Harris and Priscilla Little, from Harvard Family Research Project, describe the implementation of the new 21st Century Community Learning Centers program’s evaluation requirements in the context of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
Improving Bradenton’s After School Programs Through Utilization-Focused Evaluation
Katherine Loflin of the Knight Foundation describes the utilization-focused evaluation efforts in one of Knight’s communities.
A Conversation With Michelle Gambone
The Evaluation Exchange Special Report on the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program National Evaluation
This special report offers expert commentary on the implication of When School Stay Open Late: The National Evaluation of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program, First Year Findings for future evaluation and research.
Doing What Works: Scientifically Based Research in Education
Suzanne Bouffard of HFRP examines the new science-based research standards brought in by the No Child Left Behind Act.
Understanding Family Strengthening to Promote Youth Development
Dr. Geri Lynn Peak, a consultant and formerly the Managing Director of the Center for Applied Research and Technical Assistance, describes the evolution, practice, and potential assessment of a family strengthening approach to promote positive youth development.
The Challenges and Strategies of Evaluating Community-Wide After School Programs
Mark Ouellette and Audrey Hutchinson of the National League of Cities describes strategies to meet the challenges of evaluating citywide after school programs.
Learning From Evaluation: Lessons From After School Evaluation in Texas
Dr. Peter A. Witt, the Elda K. Bradberry Recreation and Youth Development Chair at Texas A&M University, reflects on seven years of evaluating city after school programs in Texas.
NSACA Accreditation: Building Capacity for Continuous Improvement in After School Programs
Mark Carter, Executive Director of the National School-Age Care Alliance (NSACA), describes how the NSACA accreditation process helps after school programs build evaluation capacity.
Logic Models in Out-of-School Time
Julia Coffman of HFRP describes one approach OST programs can take to develop a logic model.
Effective Interventions and School Reforms for At-Risk Children
What are effective interventions for at-risk children? This course will address this question with a focus on children in poverty and children suffering social and emotional risks. We will examine several school initiatives—including the movement to implement standards and high-stakes tests, promising charter and pilot schools, and efforts to improve teaching, as well as selected early childhood initiatives, mentoring programs, and after school interventions. While the primary focus of the course will be on the impact of interventions on children's academic development, we will also look at their impact on children's social and ethical development.
Free. Available online only.
Family, School, & Society: The Social Context of Development and Learning
In this course we will consider the social and cultural contexts which shape developmental and educational processes. The primary focus will be on understanding the nature of contemporary social problems including racism, sexism, ethnic prejudice, social class oppression, and ability discrimination as they affect children, families, and schooling. Emphasis will be given to the special role of education in linking community resources for an integrated approach to addressing problems in children's lives.
Free. Available online only.
Learning From Logic Models in Out-of-School Time
This brief offers an in-depth review of logic models and how to construct them. A logic model can be a powerful tool for illustrating a program's theory of change to program staff, partners, funders, and evaluators. Moreover, a completed logic model provides a point of reference against which progress towards achievement of desired outcomes can be measured on an ongoing basis, both through performance measurement and evaluation.
Free. Available online only.
Documenting Progress and Demonstrating Results: Evaluating Local Out-of-School Time Programs
A collaboration with the Finance Project, this brief provides practitioners of local out-of-school time programs with techniques, tools, and strategies for improving their program and tracking their effectiveness over time.
Free. Available online only.
Evaluating Citizen Schools
Charlie Schlegel of Citizen Schools explains how their evaluation strategy successfully balances the need to determine program impact with the need for continuous improvement.
Beyond the Head Count: Evaluating Family Involvement in Out-of-School Time
This brief offers an overview of how out-of-school time programs can evaluate their family involvement strategies and practices. It draws on findings from our OST Evaluation Database, interviews, and email correspondence.
Free. Available online only.
Evaluating Municipal Out-of-School Time Initiatives
To inform municipal leaders who are developing out-of-school time evaluations, HFRP scanned the city-level initiatives in its evaluation profiles database and prepared this short brief that describes the evaluation approaches, methods, and performance measures that some cities are using for evaluation.
Free. Available online only.
Evaluation of 21st Century Community Learning Center Programs: A Guide for State Education Agencies
This brief offers an in-depth look at the 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) evaluation requirements (both performance measurement for accountability and program evaluation) and provides practical suggestions about how to implement 21st CCLC evaluation at the state and local level. It includes a checklist of issues to consider when designing state and local 21st CCLC evaluations.
Hard copy out of stock. Available online only.
Youth Involvement in Evaluation & Research
This brief draws on information collected from focus group interviews with representatives of 14 programs that are involving youth in their evaluation and research efforts. It examines the elements of successful youth involved research projects and offers short profiles of the 14 organizations included in the study.
Hard copy out of stock. Available online only.
National Evaluation of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers
Mark Dynarski and Mary Moore of Mathematica Policy Research, reveal the challenges of evaluating a national program implemented in multiple locations with inherently different key elements.
All for Our Future
Luis Carlos Greer and Tamara Martinez, youth living in Arizona, describe how they got involved by working with a local community organization to make a change in their community.
Electronic Resources
A list of useful resources on the Internet.
New & Noteworthy
The New & Noteworthy section features an annotated list of papers, organizations, initiatives, and other resources related to this issue's theme of Out-of School Time.
Beyond Basic Training
Harvard Family Research Project provides information on initiatives in Texas, California, and Massachusetts.
Out-of-School Time Issue #2
The Spring 2001 issue is the second in a series of two dedicated to the field of out-of-school time and after school that was started in the Volume VI, Number 1 issue. This issue features a conversation with Jane Quinn about the out-of-school time field, descriptions of national and local evaluations that are under way, a discussion of developmental research and evaluating after school programs, a description of practices that involve youth in evaluation and research, and some practical advice about using logic models in evaluating after school programs.