This brief offers a preliminary framework for understanding and implementing evaluations of out-of-school time (OST) programs professional development initiatives. In so doing, it draws on research from early childhood and elementary education and highlights the evaluation methods and results of recent OST professional development initiatives at…

Building on the work of an earlier article ["The Word Writing CAFE: Assessing Student Writing for Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency," Dorothy J. Leal, "Reading Teacher," 59 (4) Dec 2005 (EJ738016)], these authors investigated the use of a simple assessment tool with a different audience to yield similar useful results. (Contains 3 figures and 4…

Focuses on the integration of measuring outcomes specific to both after-school program improvement and the individual child as an overall plan for program improvement and evaluation. Discusses the current context for designing an evaluation-based after-school program, and provides examples of and tools for establishing and measuring desired…

Although support for using portfolios in student assessment is widespread, few educators agree on what portfolios are and what their purposes should be. This book details a step-by-step process to help preschool and elementary educators get started in the use of portfolios for student assessment or gain new insights or strategies in their use.…

As the number of after-school programs has expanded, states are increasingly interested in information that helps in the design, selection, and management of such programs. With the sponsorship of Stone Soup Child Care Programs in California, the RAND Child Policy Project and the Promising Practices Network was commissioned to measure adherence of…