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Data Collection Measures

How to Find Data That Help Improve Student Outcomes (2015)
The Institute for Higher Education Policy’s guidebook explores the use of data for developing stronger education initiatives and improving student outcomes. This resource provides in-depth information, tools, and resources around data use, organized into the following five chapters: 1) How to Find Data that Help Improve Student Outcomes, 2) How to Build Successful Community Data Collaborations, 3) How to Us Student-Level Data to Improve College and Career Readiness, 4) How to Use Student-Level Data to Improve Postsecondary Student Outcomes, and 5) How to Use Community-Level Data to Benchmark and Report Progress.

Dabbling in the Data: A Hands-on Guide to Participatory Data Analysis (2015)
This tool from Public Profit provides materials to assist with data analysis, including 15 different exercises for hands-on data analysis that program staff can use to interpret their data. Click the link above to access the Guide, or click here to be directed to their Webinar.

Early Warning Indicators—An Afterschool Guide (2013)
This guide, created by the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) for the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, examines the role of OST providers in increasing graduation rates. Using the Early Warning Indicators (EWI), this guide explains how OST programs can partner with schools to support youth with EWIs. It provides tips for building partnerships and tools for targeting and designing effective OST activities and experiences for youth. 

Building Management Information Systems to Coordinate Citywide Afterschool Programs: A Toolkit for Cities (2012)
This resource from The Wallace Foundation offers highly useful insight into establishing a Management Information System (MIS) in a community as a means of analyzing afterschool services. The data that is collected through a MIS allows programs to make smart decisions and coordinate services throughout the community. If a program is looking to potentially create a MIS, this resource would help narrow down the possibilities and the potential uses of it since it also offers a comparison of the features of six leading vendor’s systems.

From Soft Skills to Hard Data: Measuring Youth Program Outcomes (2011)
This extensive guide from the Forum for Youth Investment summarizes information about tools that programs can use to measure youth progress in “social-emotional” or “21st century skills”. The goal is to help practitioners choose conceptually grounded and psychometrically strong measures of important skills and dispositions that cut across academic achievement and other youth outcomes like risk behavior, mental health and employment. The technical appendix can be found here.

Youthservices.net Data Tracking Example 
This service offers data collection and program evaluation capabilities to service providers. The part of it targeted to providers is a web-based software that allows users to register participants, track attendance, and measure outcomes. It is customizable, makes daily tasks more efficient, and allows for broader program evaluation.

 

DATA SHARING RESOURCES

Out-of-School Time Program Research & Evaluation Database (2015) 
This database from the Harvard Family Research Project compiles research on Out-of-School Time initiatives. The content it provides access to ranges from research and evaluation work on small OST programs to large-scale OST initiatives. It is focused on information that gives insight into high-quality evaluation techniques and the impact on OST programs.

Data Sharing Resources for Afterschool and Expanded Learning Programs and Systems (2013)
This resource from The Harvard Family Research Project is a compilation of promising practices for data sharing in the areas of: systems building, policy, sustainability, ethics, data use, and operations. It provides content that can help programs overcome barriers to accessing, sharing, and benefiting from data across other relevant organizations. The resources fall in the following four categories: 1) Creating Cross-System Collaboration and Alignment for Data Sharing, 2) Understanding and Managing Federal Rules and Restrictions on Data Sharing, 3) Creating City-Level Afterschool Data Systems, and 4) Creating Community/Neighborhood-Level Data Systems.

Afterschool Data: Six Tip Sheets on What Cities Need To Know (2012)
Created by The Wallace Foundation, this set of tip sheets provides advice for afterschool program providers, intermediary organizations, and city agencies on using data to improve OST programming. The first tip sheet is an introduction to what cities need to know about afterschool data. The following four examine ways cities can use data to support advocacy, evaluate program quality, improve accountability, and map the supply and demand for OST programming. The final tip sheet looks into data-sharing strategies to determine OST participation’s impact on academic progress.

Afterschool Programs That Follow Evidence-Based Practices to Promote Social and Emotional Development Are Effective (2011)
In this research brief from ExpandED Learning, authors Durlak and Weissberg highlight their findings in their research review on the impact of four evidence-based practices on promoting youth social and personal development. They found that youth in programs in which staff followed the SAFE model (Sequenced, step-by-step training; Active forms of learning through the practicing of new skills; Focused time on and prioritization of skill development; and Explicit definitions of skills that they were trying to promote) had higher social, academic, and personal achievement than those in programs who did not.

 

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Do you use a quality Out-of-School Time resource? Share it with other United Ways!

Email quality Out-of-School Time research reports, publications, best practices, case studies, blog articles, etc. to submissions@unitedway.org. We will contact you if we are featuring the resource you suggest in the OST Toolkit.