After-School Programs to Promote Positive Youth Development: Integrating Research into Practice and Policy, Volume 1 PDF
Preview After-School Programs to Promote Positive Youth Development: Integrating Research into Practice and Policy, Volume 1
SPRINGER BRIEFS IN PSYCHOLOGY ADVANCES IN CHILD AND FAMILY POLICY AND PRACTICE Nancy L. Deutsch Editor After-School Programs to Promote Positive Youth Development Integrating Research into Practice and Policy, Volume 1 SpringerBriefs in Psychology Advances in Child and Family Policy and Practice Editor-in-chief Barbara H. Fiese, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, USA More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11577 Nancy L. Deutsch Editor After-School Programs to Promote Positive Youth Development Integrating Research into Practice and Policy, Volume 1 123 Editor Nancy L. Deutsch University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA USA ISSN 2192-8363 ISSN 2192-8371 (electronic) SpringerBriefs inPsychology ISBN978-3-319-59131-5 ISBN978-3-319-59132-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59132-2 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017940541 This book was advertised with a copyright holder in the name of the publisher in error, whereas the author(s)holdsthecopyright. ©TheAuthor(s)2017 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission orinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. 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Printedonacid-freepaper ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbySpringerNature TheregisteredcompanyisSpringerInternationalPublishingAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland Preface In October 2014, a group of practitioners, researchers, policy makers, and youth came together at Youth-Nex: The University of Virginia Center to Promote Effective Youth Development to talk about the current state of the after-school arena and chart a course for the field’s future. The participants shared a Positive Youth Development (PYD; Lerner et al., 2015) frame for understanding youth’s after-school time, focused on the inherent competencies that youth bring to the settingsinwhichtheyengageandexploringthepromiseofafter-andout-of-school programs for enhancing those competencies. Across two days, adults and youth shared experiences, challenges, best practices, and next steps, considering topics ranging from how to recruit and engage youth, to how to effectively evaluate programoutcomesandactivities,towhatpoliciesandpracticeswouldhelpexpand and improve after-school opportunities for all youth. At the same time the conference was occurring, the After-School Alliance released its report on youths’ participation in and access to after-school activities nationwide (After School Alliance, 2014). The report highlighted the importance of the dialogue in which the conference participants were engaging. While par- ticipation rates in after-school programs are growing and fewer children are unsupervised during the after-school hours, there is still a great deal of unmet demand for high-qualityafter-schoolopportunities. Twenty percent of children are still unsupervised after-school, and nearly forty percent of parents say they would enroll their child in an after-school program if there were one available to them. Further, this unmet demand is not distributed equally; children whose families are lower on the socioeconomic ladder and children from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds participate in after-school programs at higher rates than their peers, but their families are also more likely to report unmet demand for after-school programs (After School Alliance, 2014). Further, there is broad support from parents for expanding resources for after-school programs, with 84% of parents surveyed reporting that they support public funding for after-school programs in under-resourced communities. The demand and public support for after-school programs exist. It is the responsibility of policy makers, practitioners, and researchers to come together to meet that demand through supporting effective v vi Preface policies and practices to improve and expand after-school opportunities for all youth, but especially for those youth whose needs are the greatest. This brief and its companion brief, After-School Programs to Promote Positive Youth Development (Volume 2): Learning from Specific Models, seek to identify promisingnextstepsfordoingjustthat.Thechaptersinthesebriefsaredrawnfrom presentations made by practitioners, researchers, policy makers, and youth at the October 2014 Youth-Nex conference. Many of the chapters are collaboratively authored by practitioners and scholars and present a unique blend of lenses on after-school programs and practices. The chapters in this first brief present an over-archingframeforunderstandingtheafter-schoolfieldfrombothhistoricaland positive youth development perspectives, discuss key components of effective programs,reviewmethodsofevaluationforafter-andout-of-schoolprograms,and synthesize the current state of the field, providing recommendations for policy makers and practitioners to begin to address some of the gaps in both our knowl- edge and our services. InChap.1,Pittmanprovidesafoundationforthevolumebyplacingthecurrent policyandpracticeenvironmentinhistoricalcontext.Shehighlightstheimportance of the PYD framework for the after-school field and identifies the need for a stronger PYD theory of change to guide both programs and policy efforts. In reviewing the state of the field, she also points out the opportunity that currently exists for both the after-school field and the PYD perspective to inform in- and out-of-school policy discussions, in part by expanding the breadth of outcomes considered important for effective youth development. InChap.2,Dawes,Pollack,andSadadiscussthreekeycomponentsofeffective programs: appropriate structure, support for efficacy and mattering, and supportive relationships. Drawing on the foundational work of the National Research Council’s 2002 report on community-based youth development programs (Eccles and Gootman, 2002), they use case studies of two programs to illustrate specific programmatic practices that may foster each of these three key components. Further, they point out the importance of programs addressing individualized developmental needs based on factors such as age and gender. InChap.3,Fredricks,Naftzger,Smith,andRileybuildonthepreviouschapters by discussing the importance of youth engagement in programs, and reviewing methods of measuring youth engagement. They present a theory of change for after-school programs based around understanding how youth develop skills through engagement in programs and then transfer those skills to settings beyond the program. In addition, they respond to Pittman’s call for broadening the out- comes considered important for youth development by reviewing how programs mayinfluencesocialandemotionalskills.Finally,theypresentacasestudyofGirls on the Run as an example of one program which has engaged in a program-researcherpartnershiptodevelop,implement,andexpandanevaluationof its services for program improvement. In Chap. 4, Deutsch, Blythe, Kelley, Tolan, and Lerner provide a synthesis and in-depth discussion of a number of themes raised across the volume. Beginning with a brief history of the PYD and after-school fields, and their intersection, we Preface vii then focus on understanding what after-school programs do (and what they should do), discuss how we study programs (and how we should study programs), and considerhowweuse(andhowweshoulduse)theresultingevidence.Wehighlight a model wherein research on after-school programs is not conducted merely to provewhetherornottheywork,butisundertakentoimproveprogrampracticesand outcomes. Further, we emphasize that a social justice perspective is key, and that research, programming, and policy efforts should be undertaken to improve out- comesfor thoseyouthwhoaremostinneed.TheExecutiveSummary draws from across the chapters in both briefs to provide specific policy and program recom- mendations for the field. There is still great disparity in youth’s opportunities in the after-school hours. This disparity amplifies the already present gaps in opportunity within educational and other social resources, thereby perpetuating the persistent gaps in educational attainment and achievement of youth from different social locations. The after-schoolarena,withitsmorecommonfocusonyouthpotentialandassets,holds greatpromiseforhelpingeventheplayingfieldintermsofopportunitiesforyouth. It is the role of practitioners, policy makers, and researchers to work together to meet that potential, reduce current inequities, and ensure that all youth, but espe- cially those who need it most, have access to high quality, engaging, and devel- opmentally promotive after-school environments. Reference Eccles, J., & Gootman, J. (Eds.). (2002). Community programs to promote youth development. Washington,DC:NationalAcademyPress. Charlottesville, VA, USA Nancy L. Deutsch Executive Summary The chapters in this brief and its companion brief, After-School Programs to Promote Positive Youth Development (Volume 2): Learning from Specific Models, represent unique collaborations between practitioners and researchers who came together with policy makers and youth in October, 2014 to “talk after-school” at a conference hosted by Youth-Nex: The University of Virginia Center to Promote Effective Youth Development. Coalescing around a shared vision guided by a PositiveYouthDevelopment(PYD)approachtoyouth,whichfocusesonyouthas “resources to be developed rather than problems to be solved” (Walker 2003, pg. 363),theconversationsoverthosetwodaysprovidedaninvigoratingandinspiring roadmap for the future of practice, policy, and research in the domain of after-school. Participants, both adults and youth, shared experiences, challenges, best practices, and next steps and discussed topics ranging from youth and staff recruitment and engagement, key components of effective programs, and program evaluation. The chapters within these two briefs reflect synthesized and expanded versions of the conversations begun at the conference and provide guidance for policy makers, practitioners, and researchers who want to expand and improve after-school opportunities for all youth. The following themes and recommenda- tions emerged from across these chapters: a. Offering high quality, after-school opportunities to all youth, but especially those youth who are lacking in opportunities or access to such experiences in other environments, is essential to preparing youth to be the fully engaged and productivecitizenstheywant,andsocietyneedsthem,tobe.Publicandprivate resourcesmustbecommittedtotheafter-schoolsector,bothdirectservicesand researchoneffectiveprogramsandpractices,toensureequitableopportunities for all youth to fulfill their potential. b. Giventheopportunitygapspresentinoursociety,theafter-schoolsectorshould focus on identifying and promoting programs and services that are most effective for those youth who are most in need. c. Communitiesshoulddevelopandsupportsystems-levelinfrastructureforyouth development that fosters cross-sector collaborations for youth services and ix x ExecutiveSummary monitoring.Schools,after-schoolorganizations,summerlearningprograms,and other service agencies should link their information for program planning and data sharing purposes. d. The PYD and after-school fields have an opportunity to inform educational reform, as public interest in non-academic skills grows. Researchers and practitionersmustcollaboratetodevelopandtesttheory-of-changemodelsand common measures of non-academic skills that demonstrate skill transfer between after-school and other settings. Accountability should not rest on academic skills alone. The field should help value, define, and develop better measures of non-academic outcomes. e. After-schoolsystemsshouldshiftfrom“proving”to“improving”approachesto evaluation, focused on using data to identify and change setting-level factors, including programmatic structures and processes, that enhance youth’s oppor- tunities for active engagement and positive development in a variety of devel- opmental domains. f. After-school settings must be attentive and responsive to the individual needs of the youth they serve. Youth enter programs with different developmental needs shaped by factors such as age, gender, cultural background, and eco- logical experiences. These needs differ between youth as well as within youth overtime.Thus,notonlywillthesameprogramnotmeettheneedsofallyouth, but the same youth may need different supports from a program as he or she grows and develops. Looking only at group-level needs and outcomes is not sufficient for ensuring equitable opportunities for all youth. Individual-level measurement is needed to identify which programs and practices are effective for which youth in which domains at which points in time. g. Relationships with supportive adults have long been recognized as a key component of effective after-school programs. After-school settings must value andprovideopportunitiesandtrainingforstafftofostertheirrelationshipswith youth. h. Policy makers should work with the after-school sector to provide after-school staff with increased opportunities for professionalization, continued education, and career pathways that attract and retain talented youth workers. i. A PYD approach to after-school programming and policy requires that youth voice be present in the conversations. Youth should be active agents of their development,andthusshouldhavearoleinshapingthepolicies,programsand settings that serve them. Reference Walker, D. K. (2003). Pubic health strategies to promote healthy children, youth, and families. InR.M.Lerner,F.Jacobs&D.Wertleib:Handbookofapplieddevelopmentalscience,volume 2: Enhancing the life changes of youth and families, (pp. 371–394). London: Sage Publications.
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