quality/best practices resources
The Connecticut After School Network recently published Connecticut-specific Best Practice Guidelines and a companion Self-Assessment Tool.
To download the Guidelines, click here.
To download the Self-Assessment Tool, click here.
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National AfterSchool Association Core Competencies for After School Trainers (PDF)
National AfterSchool Association Code of Ethics (PDF)
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PEAR (Program in Education, Afterschool and Resiliency), a Harvard-McLean Hospital program, now has a searchable database of assessment tools for informal science, especially in museums, schools, after school and summer programs.
ATIS - Assessment Tools in Informal Science is a resource designed to help practitioners, evaluators, researchers and policy makers select appropriate tools to assess the quality of science learning and child outcomes especially in out-of-school time programs.
Explore the web site http://atis.pearweb.org/ to find descriptions, ratings and reviews for 16 assessment tools and search by age, domain and assessment type to find the right tools to measure performance of informal science, technology, engineering and math programs.
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The Quality Imperative: A State Guide to Achieving the Promise of Extended Learning Opportunities (PDF) - a report released in March 2009 by the Council of Chief State School Officers (www.ccsso.org) and the National Governor's Association (www.nga.org).
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Tools for Mentoring Adolescents were developed by the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota in collaboration with the Search Institute to support and strengthen relationships between mentors and mentees.
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Toolkit for After-School Programs from CIS
The nation's fifth largest youth-serving organization, Communities In Schools (www.cisnet.org) champions the connection of needed community resources with schools to help kids succeed in school and prepare for life. The contents of the Toolkit were developed by the National Dropout Prevention Center (NDPC) in collaboration with Communities In Schools.
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New Tool for Advocates from Forum for Youth Investments:
These action briefs are part of a series developed by the Forum for Youth Investment, Connect for Kids, Voices for America’s Children and many state Kids Count organizations, to share the vision, messages and state policies being proposed to improve the work readiness of youth.
Click here to download Ready for 21 Action Brief 1.
Click here to download Ready for 21 Action Brief 2.
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OUT-OF-SCHOOL TIME DATABASE The Out-of-School Time (OST) Program Evaluation Database is a comprehensive collection of profiles written by HFRP staff of OST program evaluations.
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The U.S. Department of Education is pleased to announce the newly remodeled and updated Federal Resources for Education Excellence (FREE) Web site. There are over 1500 resources to take advantage of at FREE, ranging from primary historical documents, lesson plans, science visualizations, math simulations and online challenges, paintings, photos, mapping tools, and more. This easily accessible information is provided by federal organizations and agencies such as the Library of Congress, National Archives, NEH, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian, NSF, and NASA.