Impact Evaluation for the Parent Child Plus Program

April 1, 2020
Stephen C. Peck, Ph.D. and Charles Smith, Ph.D.

The Quality-Impact-Equity Design and Methods (QDM) Toolbox was used to: (a) reconfigure existing measures for Parenting Practice Quality and Child SEL Skill to maximize reliability and validity for measuring socio-emotional skills and learning (SEL); (b) produce holistic profiles of parent and child skill at each timepoint; and (c) apply pattern-centered analytics to estimate impact and equity effects of the PC+
program as implemented in Newark.

Impact Evaluation for the Palm Beach County Quality Improvement System 

July 1, 2019
Charles Smith and Stephen Peck

We sought to answer two specific questions about implementation and children’s SEL skill growth: What is the impact of QIS exposure on program quality (i.e., best practices, low staff turnover, great content), particularly for programs that have lower program quality at baseline? What is the impact of exposure to high program quality on student SEL skills?

Youth Program Quality Self-Assessment Pilot Study

January 1, 2005
Charles Smith

Overall 24 sites within 17 grantees participated in the self-assessment pilot study by assembling staff teams to collect data and score the Youth Program Quality Assessment (PQA). Youth PQA data collected using the self-assessment method demonstrated promising patterns of both internal consistency and concurrent validity with aligned youth survey responses.

Afterschool Learning at a Distance: Key Themes and Promising Practices

July 12, 2020
Charles Smith, Ph.D., Lucy Smith, Leanne Roy, and Stephen Peck, Ph.D.

This report describes the experiences and practices of Genesee Intermediate School District: Bridges to Success (GISD) Team Leads and direct staff serving children and families after substantially redesigning afterschool programming due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Promoting Healthy Development of Young People: Outcomes Framework 2.0

October 23, 2019
Charles Smith, Ph.D., Stephen Peck, Ph.D., and Bethia McNeil, The Centre for Youth Impact

In the summer of 2018, the Local Government Association (LGA) in England commissioned the Centre for Youth Impact to produce an outcomes framework to help partners across the English youth sector to develop and agree on mutual aims to support young people in their local areas. The work was in response to LGA’s consultations that led to its vision statement described in the report, Bright Futures: Our Vision for Youth Services, published at the end of 2017.

Measure Once, Cut Twice: Using Data For Continuous and Impact Evaluation in Education Programs

April 9, 2019
Charles Smith, Ph.D., Stephen Peck, Ph.D., Leanne Roy, and Lucy Smith

This paper describes a generic quality-outcomes design (Q-O design) that meets the need for performance measurement methodology for concurrent and integrated impact evaluation and continuous improvement in the same organization; that is, measure once, cut twice. 

Quality-Outcomes Study for Seattle Public Schools Summer Programs

January 11, 2018
Charles Smith, Ph.D., Leanne Roy, Stephen Peck, Ph.D., Colin Macleod, Katherine Helegda, and John Hughes

This quality-outcomes study was designed to both (a) describe performance in Seattle Public Schools (SPS) summer learning programs in ways that are useful to staff and (b) provide evaluative evidence (i.e., validity) for an instructional model that includes challenging academic content and responsive instructional practices.