Good evaluations for out-of-school programs - Tip-Off - Brief Article

Parks & Recreation, May, 2003

How well out-of-school time programs serve youth is a front-burner issue in the wake of the recent 21st Century Community Learning Centers report and pending budget cuts. We now know a lot about what works, for whom they work, why they work and how to improve them. But are your results in a measured format that will convince legislators and budget officials? Be sure your program has the appropriate evaluation markers that substantiate the important community service your youth programs are doing. To help in this area, the Harvard Family Research Project database offers a number of rigorous out-of-school time evaluations that showed positive participant outcomes.

Get ideas to improve your program and monitor its results. Go to www.gse. harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/afterschool/ evaldata base.htmL