Defining and Measuring Quality in Youth Programs and Classrooms: New Directions for Youth Development (J-B MHS Single Issue Mental Health Services)

Improving youth development and well-being requires improving the everyday settings where development occurs. In this volume, scholars who study three different settings -- classrooms, youth prohrams, and mentoring dyads -- reflect on what constitutes quality in their setting and how to think about measuring it. The authors focus specifically on quality "at the point of service," meaning the specific practices, processes, and interactions that occur among adults and youth in the setting. Topics include:OL {list-style:disc}P:{margin-left 60px}

1. Using instructional logs to identify quality in educational settings
2. Classroom processes and positive youth development
3. Assessing the quality of youth mentoring relationships
4. Creating quality within the daily tumble of events in youth settings
5. Assessing after-school settings
6. Quality and accountability in the out-of-school-time
7. Recent developments and future directions for the out-of-school-time field

The articles also offer practical advice about effective and manageable ways that practitioners can incorporate assessment into their work in order to improve quality. Together these articles represent a wealth of knowledge about what is important to measure in youth-serving settings and the pros and cons of different approaches to measurement. This information can help practitioners and policymakers grapple with how to use scarce evaluation resources wisely, establish productive accountability systems, and link data and program improvement strategies in ways that make services more effective.

This is the 121st volume of New Directions for Youth Development, the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series dedicated to bringing together everyone concerned with helping young people, including scholars, practitioners, and people from different disciplines and professions. The result is a unique resource presenting thoughtful, multi-faceted approaches to helping our youth develop into responsible, stable, well-rounded citizens.