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After-School Programs to Promote Positive Youth Development pp 23–43Cite as

Measuring Youth Participation, Program Quality, and Social and Emotional Skills in After-School Programs

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Abstract

Increases in funding for and attention to after-school programs have led to greater scrutiny over both the quality and effectiveness of this programming, putting pressure on programs to measure both setting-level characteristics and the impact of involvement on participants. Yet research on the outcomes of after-school participation has been mixed. One reason for the mixed finding is that the effects of after-school participation vary by type of program, quality of programming, and length of youths’ involvement. Better measurement can help determine which types of programs are most effective and how often young people need to attend to see these benefits. First, we focus on the Quality, Engagement, Skills, Transfer (QuEST) model, and outline measurement issues for three components of this model, quality, engagement, and social and emotional skills. Next, a case study of an evaluation of the program Girls on the Run is presented. The chapter concludes with a discussion of measurement challenges and recommendations for policy makers and practitioners. Recommendations include: (1) using logic models to define the goals of the program and to help identify appropriate outcomes, (2) incorporating measures of youth participation and engagement into evaluations to better understand the impact of after-school programs, (3) evaluating the technical quality of available measures and selecting measures that are appropriate to the study goals, and (4) considering the organization’s capacity for evaluation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Connecticut College, London, USA

    Jennifer A. Fredricks

  2. American Institutes for Research, Washington D.C., USA

    Neil Naftzger

  3. David Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality, Ypsilanti, USA

    Charles Smith

  4. Girls on the Run, Charlotte, USA

    Allison Riley

Authors
  1. Jennifer A. Fredricks
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  2. Neil Naftzger
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  3. Charles Smith
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  4. Allison Riley
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jennifer A. Fredricks .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Virginia , Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

    Nancy L. Deutsch

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Fredricks, J.A., Naftzger, N., Smith, C., Riley, A. (2017). Measuring Youth Participation, Program Quality, and Social and Emotional Skills in After-School Programs. In: Deutsch, N. (eds) After-School Programs to Promote Positive Youth Development. SpringerBriefs in Psychology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59132-2_3

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