An Insider’s Look at Improving Program Quality

The Ready by 21 Quality Initiative

Forum for Youth Investment & The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Austin one of 11 sites

Center for Youth Program Quality (High Scope Educational Research Foundation)

Capacity to Assess & Improve Program Quality

Assumptions:

High-quality programs can influence key developmental outcomes for children and youth.

Accurate, accessible data about program quality can influence staff practice and drive planning and decision-making at the system level.

Plan

Make choices Reflect

Partner with adults

Lead and mentorBe in small groups

Experience belonging

Engagement

Reframing conflictEncouragementSkill building

Active engagementSession flow

Welcoming atmosphere

Supportive Environment

Interaction

Safe Environment

Healthy food and drinksProgram space and furniture Emergency procedures

Psychological and emotional safety

Physically safe environment

What is Assessed?

Sample Score Report

00.5

11.5

22.5

33.5

44.5

5

SafeEnvironment

SupportiveEnvironment

Interaction Engagement

Alignment of Professional Development Opportunities

You are invited…

to join us to improve the quality of youth programs.

You can accept by

Identifying a person from your staff to be trained as a self-assessor.

Training day – October 14th

Commit to assessing organization

External Assessor?

Identifying a person from your staff to be trained as an external assessor.3 days of training – October 14 – 16 Assess 3 program offerings

Get Assessed

Volunteering to have one of your programs assessed After October 16th, there will be external

assessors available to complete assessments of program offerings.

An assessment takes about 2-hours

Final Notes

All assessment trainings and assessments are free.

There will be a charge of $10 to cover the cost of materials for the professional development sessions.