Download or read book Defining and Measuring Quality in Youth Programs and Classrooms written by Nicole Yohalem and published by Jossey-Bass. This book was released on 2009-05-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Improving youth development and well-being requires improving the everyday settings where development occurs. In this volume, scholars who study three different settings -- classrooms, youth programs, and mentoring dyads -- reflect on what constitutes quality in their setting and how to think about measuring it. The authors focus specifically on quality "at the point of service," meaning the specific practices, processes, and interactions that occur among adults and youth in the setting. Topics include: Using instructional logs to identify quality in educational settings Classroom processes and positive youth development Assessing the quality of youth mentoring relationships Creating quality within the daily tumble of events in youth settings Assessing after-school settings Quality and accountability in the out-of-school-time Recent developments and future directions for the out-of-school-time field The articles also offer practical advice about effective and manageable ways that practitioners can incorporate assessment into their work in order to improve quality. Together these articles represent a wealth of knowledge about what is important to measure in youth-serving settings and the pros and cons of different approaches to measurement. This information can help practitioners and policymakers grapple with how to use scarce evaluation resources wisely, establish productive accountability systems, and link data and program improvement strategies in ways that make services more effective. This is the 121st volume of New Directions for Youth Development, the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series dedicated to bringing together everyone concerned with helping young people, including scholars, practitioners, and people from different disciplines and professions. The result is a unique resource presenting thoughtful, multi-faceted approaches to helping our youth develop into responsible, stable, well-rounded citizens.
Download or read book Defining and Measuring Quality written by Pia Caronongan and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Quality measurement serves as a foundation for child care Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS). Understanding the variation that exists in quality measurement, the different contexts in which states make decisions, and the factors that play into their decisions can help administrators identify where their state may fall along the spectrum in practice (or the direction in which they should steer), and can help researchers design approaches that take these differences into account. Such information can also aid in identifying opportunities for moving toward some common practice and research goals. The quality components included in a QRIS define a state's framework for measuring quality and signal to providers and parents the practices that should be included in high-quality early child care and education programs. There are commonalities in the quality categories that are included across QRIS (Tout et al. 2010), demonstrating that many states and communities are using a similar foundation upon which to build their rating systems. However, the manner in which states and localities combine and aggregate these quality categories to develop QRIS ratings has many nuances, producing rating systems with important variations that can impede direct cross-QRIS comparisons and research approaches. Recognizing the need for information on the quality measurement practices in QRIS, this in-depth study of select QRIS was launched as part of the Child Care Quality Rating Systems (QRS) Assessment project, funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) within the Administration for Children and Families. Approaches used by states and communities to measure quality through the QRIS were examined by focusing on three research questions: (1) What is the variation in how select QRIS define and measure quality, and what accounts for the variation in their approaches?; (2) What are the specific processes used by select QRIS to measure each component of the quality rating and determine the overall rating level?; and (3) What is the availability of consistent and reliable data on quality ratings within select QRIS and how are the data currently being used? To answer these questions, five QRIS were selected for the in-depth study: Miami-Dade County, Florida; Illinois; Indiana; Pennsylvania; and Tennessee. A summary of key characteristics of the five QRIS is presented. Licensing and NAEYC Accreditation Requirements for Center-Based Programs are appended.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Human Development and Culture written by Lene Arnett Jensen and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-13 with total page 769 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Human Development and Culture provides a comprehensive synopsis of theory and research on human development, with every chapter drawing together findings from cultures around the world. This includes a focus on cultural diversity within nations, cultural change, and globalization. Expertly edited by Lene Arnett Jensen, the Handbook covers the entire lifespan from the prenatal period to old age. It delves deeply into topics such as the development of emotion, language, cognition, morality, creativity, and religion, as well as developmental contexts such as family, friends, civic institutions, school, media, and work. Written by an international group of eminent and cutting-edge experts, chapters showcase the burgeoning interdisciplinary approach to scholarship that bridges universal and cultural perspectives on human development. This "cultural-developmental approach" is a multifaceted, flexible, and dynamic way to conceptualize theory and research that is in step with the cultural and global realities of human development in the 21st century.
Download or read book Advancing Youth Work written by Dana Fusco and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-02-27 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This path-breaking book brings together an international list of contributors to collectively articulate a vision for the field of youth work, sharing what they have learned from decades of experience in the training and education of youth workers. Carefully designed evaluation and research studies have legitimized the learning potential of youth programs and non-school organizations over the last twenty years, and recent attention has shifted towards the education, training, and on-going professional development of youth workers. Contributors define youth work across domains of practice and address the disciplines of knowledge upon which sound practice is based, reviewing examples of youth practitioner development both in and outside of academia. Raising critical questions and concerns about current trends, Advancing Youth Work aims to bring clarity to the field and future of youth work. Advancing Youth Work will help youth work practitioners develop a common language, articulate their field in one voice, and create a shared understanding of similarities and differences. This book is also an invaluable resource for higher educators, researchers, and students involved with youth work.
Download or read book Measuring Social Capital written by Christiaan Grootaert and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2004 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concept of social capital has become increasingly prominent in both the theoretical and applied social science literature over the last decade. This publication seeks to provide a set of empirical tools to measure social capital, focusing on its application in developing countries. The methodology aims to generate quantitative data on various dimensions of social capital as part of a larger household survey (such as the Living Standards Measurement Survey or a household income/expenditure survey). The paper also provides detailed guidance for the use and analysis of the data.
Download or read book Recreation as a Developmental Experience Theory Practice Research written by Lawrence R. Allen and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-07-26 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's not all "fun and games." A growing body of research suggests that recreation activities can be powerful development contexts when they are properly framed and intentionally designed. This volume highlights much of that research, and the articles that follow provide ample evidence that well-framed recreation activities and contexts can provide a range of positive developmental outcomes. Editors Lawrence R. Allen and Robert J. Barcelona draw on their own work in human and youth development and have assembled contributing authors who explore the important of meaningful recreation and leisure experiences in the lives of youth and the value of recreation from a developmental perspective. Chapters focus on the developmental potential of specific recreation contexts and settings and provide research and evidence-based strategies outlining the activities that best promote positive youth development. Finally, the volume demonstrates how recreation is being used to strengthen individual and community assets and its role as a contributor in addressing pressing social issues. This is the 130th volume of New Directions for Youth Development, the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series dedicated to bringing together everyone concerned with helping young people, including scholars, practitioners, and people from different disciplines and professions. The result is a unique resource presenting thoughtful, multi-faceted approaches to helping our youth develop into responsible, stable, well-rounded citizens.
Download or read book Overview MELQO written by UNESCO and published by UNESCO Publishing. This book was released on 2017-08-14 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Measuring Early Learning Quality and Outcomes (MELQO) initiative began in 2014 as part of the global emphasis on early childhood development (ECD). Led by UNESCO, the World Bank, the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution and UNICEF, the initiative aims to promote feasible, accurate and useful measurement of childrenâs development and learning at the start of primary school, and of the quality of their pre-primary learning environments. Items are designed for children between the ages of 4 and 6 years. Following the premise that many existing tools include similar items, the leading organizationsâ core team worked with a consortium of experts, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and multilaterals to build upon current measurement tools to create a common set of items organized into modules for measuring: 1) early childhood development and learning, and 2) the quality of pre-primary learning environments. The MELQO core team and experts also collaborated to outline a process for context-specific adaptation of the measurement modules resulting from lessons learned from field-testing in several countries in 2015 and 2016. The modules are designed to be implemented at scale, with an emphasis on feasibility for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). A key question addressed by MELQO was the balance between a global tool suitable for use everywhere, and local priorities and goals for childrenâs development. [Introduction, ed]
Download or read book Toward Positive Youth Development written by Marybeth Shinn and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-04-10 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Social settings have enormous power to promote or hinder positive youth development. Researchers and practitioners know a great deal about features of schools and programs for youth that affect development, but much less about how to transform settings to bring about these desirable features. This book shows how to harness the power of settings. It shifts the debate from simply enhancing youth outcomes at the individual level to improving the settings of youths' daily lives. The book offers researchers and practitioners blueprints for creating and changing influential settings including classrooms, schools, universities, out-of-school time programs, ethnic systems of supplementary education, and other community-based programs. Leading scholars in psychology, education, human development, sociology, anthropology, economics, law, and public policy discuss a wide array of social change strategies, and describe how to measure key features of settings as a target and guide for change. The authors also demonstrate how larger social structures - such as school districts, community coalitions, community data resources - can support change. Many of the chapters describe ways to make settings work for all youth, including those marginalized by reason of race, ethnicity, social class, or sexual orientation. Toward Positive Youth Development will guide researchers, educators, administrators and policy makers to improve schools and youth programs for all of America's youth.
Download or read book Program Quality Assessment Handbook written by Charles Smith (David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality) and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Youth Program Quality Assessment (PQA) is a validated instrument designed to evaluate the quality of youth programs and identify staff training needs. It has been used in community organizations, schools, camps, and other places where youth have fun, work, and learn with adults. The Youth PQA is an evidence-based assessment tool. Evidence is gathered through observation and interview. Program staff or an outside specialist observe program activities, take notes, and then conduct an interview with a program administrator. Notes, observations, and interview data are used as evidence to score items. Item scores are combined to create an overall program quality profile. The pyramid below shows the domains of the Youth PQA. Each domain contains a set of specific and observable elements of best practice for working with children and youth."--
Download or read book ESEA Reauthorization written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Handbook of Applied Developmental Science written by Richard M. Lerner and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2003 with total page 2286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Handbook of Applied Developmental Science is the only work to comprehensively present the latest theory, research, and application from applied developmental science (ADS) and the positive psychology movement. It summarizes and synthesizes the best scientific knowledge from ADS to help readers understand the efforts being made around the world to ensure that all children and adolescents develop into healthy adults who contribute positively to society. The Handbook is also the first resource to organize and integrate both the prevention and promotion approaches to programs and policies for children, adolescents, and families. In addition, the Handbook provides a detailed road map for future research and for actions that will promote positive child, youth, and family development. Published in four volumes, the Handbook features 95 chapters by more than 150 contributors, many of who are renowned leaders in the field. Volume 1 describes the foundation of applied developmental science, its historical development, and current scientific and professional efforts to develop policies and programs that promote positive child, adolescent, and family development. Volume 2 examines public policy and government service systems. Volume 3 discusses community systems for enhancing citizenship and promoting a civil society. Finally, Volume 4 outlines methods for university engagement and academic outreach. Feature and Benefits - Four comprehensive, topical volumes - Approximately 2,200 pages - 95 chapters - More than 150 contributors, many of whom are world-renowned leaders in applied development science from the academic, professional, and policy and political arenas - Forewords for each volume written by well-known authorities, including Edward Zigler, co-founder of the Head Start program; US Congressman Elijah E Cummings; David Bell, International Youth Foundation; and Graham Spanier, President, The Pennsylvania State University Designed for a wide audience the Handbook will be an important addition to your library collection. It offers a single source for information about fostering generations of healthy children and families. It is designed specifically to meet the needs of: - Faculty and students in the fields of psychology, human development, family studies, policy studies, nursing, allied health, and education - Staff and volunteers working in non-governmental organizations - Members of local, state, national, and international government organizations and personnel involved in policy and program development and funding - Directors and staff at foundations that administer programs aimed at promoting positive your and family development
Download or read book The Wiley Handbook of Early Childhood Development Programs Practices and Policies written by Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-01-30 with total page 549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first and only comprehensive review of current early childhood development theory, practices, policies, and the science behind them This unique and important bookprovides a comprehensive overview of the current theory, practices, and policies in early childhood development withinthe contexts of family, school, and community, and society at large. Moreover, it synthesizes scientifically rigorous research from an array of disciplines in an effort to identify the most effective strategies for promoting early childhood development. Research into childhood development is booming, and the scientific knowledge base concerning early childhood development is now greater than that of any other stage of the human life span. At the same time, efforts to apply that knowledge to early childhood practices, programs, and policies have never been greater or more urgent. Yet, surprisingly, until The Handbook of Early Childhood Development Programs, Practices, and Policies, there was no comprehensive, critical review of the applied science in the field. The book begins with in-depth coverage of child and family approaches. From there it moves onto a consideration of school- and community-based strategies. It concludes with a discussion of current social policies on health and development in early childhood and their implications. Provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the knowledge base, along with guidance for the future of the field Examines the underlying theory and basic science guiding efforts to promote early childhood development Critically reviews the strength of the empirical support for individual practices, programs, and policies Explores key opportunities and barriers policymakers and practitioners face when implementing various approaches Pays particular attention to socioeconomically disadvantaged and other disenfranchised populations The Handbook of Early Childhood Development Programs, Practices, and Policies is a valuable resource for practitioners, scholars, graduate students, and advanced undergraduate students across the social sciences who are interested in strengthening their understanding of current strategies for promoting early childhood development and the science informing those strategies.
Download or read book Stakeholders Perspectives on Assessment and Improvement of Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care A World Wide Kaleidoscope written by Antonia Elisabeth Enikoe Baumeister and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2024-08-29 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The key aims of early childhood education and care (ECEC) are to offer children from all social backgrounds a good start in their lives, to support parenting as well as families’ workforce participation, and, thereby, to sustainably strengthen the national economy over current and future generations. High-quality ECEC has been shown to improve child outcomes and be a buffer against developmental risk factors. For these reasons, governments, ECEC providers, and researchers are placing an increasing focus on the frameworks and systems that underpin quality as well as the measures that assess quality. At the same time, however, research on ECEC as a multidisciplinary endeavor has shown that the aims and benefits of high-quality ECEC can only be reached when all stakeholders’ needs are acknowledged and sufficiently met. For example, recent evidence suggests that the acceptability and social validity of quality assessment and improvement methods are contested among some stakeholders, and thus, the sustainability of these quality efforts may be in doubt. New challenges also include the ever-changing nature and circumstances affecting ECEC stakeholders, for example, the greater flows of refugee families and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. This Frontiers Research Topic will contribute to an updated knowledge base in order to inform governments, providers, and the scientific community about best practices and new solutions for conceptualizing, measuring, and improving ECEC quality. The aim of the proposed Research Topic is to generate a worldwide kaleidoscope of research studies that explore and discuss models for gathering the perspectives of multiple stakeholders and considering the meaningfulness of stakeholder views for conceptualizing, assessing, and improving quality in ECEC. We believe that greater attention needs to be given to the diversity of stakeholders who are invested in ECEC, including government regulatory authorities, service providers, educators, families, communities, and children. We also believe that wide-ranging stakeholder input will generate innovative methods for assessing and improving quality that keep pace with our rapidly changing information society. Two further foci are set on ECEC practices: (1.) that support participation, diversity, and inclusion of all children and families and (2.) that are suitable for developing countries and diverse populations within countries. In this, the focus is not only on best practices but also on the limitations of practices. In soliciting research articles on ECEC stakeholder perspectives, we describe stakeholders as inclusive of government/non-government regulatory agencies, service providers, teachers and caregivers, families, communities, and children. Themes of interest include but are not limited to: • Assessment of quality in ECEC, including self-assessment approaches; • The design of and use of quality frameworks in ECEC; • Effects of quality and of quality improvement on children and families; • Drivers and indicators of quality improvement; • Acceptance and sustainability of quality efforts among ECEC stakeholders; • Policy expectations of quality rating and improvement systems (e.g., funding policy); • The role of teacher and caregiver professionalization; • All types of center-based and home-based ECEC. We are interested both in quantitative and qualitative research designs as well as in mixed-methods research. Cross-sectional, longitudinal, (quasi-)experimental and case study designs are welcome. The following article types are welcome: original research, empirical studies, systematic reviews, community case studies, policy briefs articles, and brief research reports.
Download or read book Measure Use Improve written by Christina A. Russell and published by IAP. This book was released on 2020-10-01 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Measure, Use, Improve! Data Use in Out-of-School Time shares the experience and wisdom from a broad cross-section of out-of-school time professionals, ranging from internal evaluators, to funders, to researchers, to policy advocates. Key themes of the volume include building support for learning and evaluation within out-of-school time programs, creating and sustaining continuous quality improvement efforts, authentically engaging young people and caregivers in evaluation, and securing funder support for learning and evaluation. This volume will be particularly useful to leadership-level staff in out-of-school time organizations that are thinking about deepening their own learning and evaluation systems, yet aren’t sure where to start. Authors share conceptual frameworks that have helped inform their thinking, walk through practical examples of how they use data in out-of-school time, and offer advice to colleagues.
Download or read book Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2015-07-23 with total page 587 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.
Download or read book Patterns of Classroom Quality in Head Start and Center Based Early Childhood Education Programs REL 2017 199 written by Clare W. Irwin and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Measuring classroom quality and ensuring high-quality learning experiences for young children are interests of the Early Childhood Education Research Alliance, a research alliance of Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast & Islands. This study, conducted in collaboration with the alliance, addresses these interests by examining multiple measures of classroom quality simultaneously. Many measures of early childhood classroom quality have been examined, but previous research has not explored whether multiple measures of diverse aspects of classroom quality can be used to classify early childhood classrooms into classroom quality groups. The main purpose of this study was to determine whether early childhood classrooms can be grouped based on their scores on multiple measures of quality. The study team used multiple measures of diverse aspects of classroom quality to determine classroom quality groups and examined the number of classroom quality groups that exist and the percentage of classrooms that fall within each classroom quality group. A second purpose of the study was to explore the extent to which each measure contributes to the identification of classroom quality groups. This study employs a methodological approach that has not previously been used to synthesize measures of classroom quality. This approach allowed the study team to provide an example of patterns of classroom quality in programs serving Head Start-eligible children across the country. In addition to informing practitioners about what quality looks like in these settings, the findings allow for the categorization of classrooms across multiple classroom quality dimensions. This is more useful for informing practitioners than the traditional way of measuring quality along a continuum-- eliminating the need for users to come up with their own cutscores for these measures. Key findings include: (1) Based on the 13 measures examined, classroom quality can be sorted into three distinct groups: good, fair, and poor; and (2) Classroom quality measures determined by independent observers distinguish classroom quality groups better than self-reported measures do. Data and Methodology are appended.
Download or read book Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2017-08-25 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Educating dual language learners (DLLs) and English learners (ELs) effectively is a national challenge with consequences both for individuals and for American society. Despite their linguistic, cognitive, and social potential, many ELsâ€"who account for more than 9 percent of enrollment in grades K-12 in U.S. schoolsâ€"are struggling to meet the requirements for academic success, and their prospects for success in postsecondary education and in the workforce are jeopardized as a result. Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures examines how evidence based on research relevant to the development of DLLs/ELs from birth to age 21 can inform education and health policies and related practices that can result in better educational outcomes. This report makes recommendations for policy, practice, and research and data collection focused on addressing the challenges in caring for and educating DLLs/ELs from birth to grade 12.
