Woodcraft Rangers Published Study Results on Quality of Afterschool Programs
Monday, May 9, 2011

The innovative study model in Los Angeles County opens door for after school community across the U.S. to measure and improve program quality.

Los Angeles, CA (May 9, 2011) -- Woodcraft Rangers (www.woodcraftrangers.org) has published the results of a quality study of its Nvision afterschool programs, covering 43 elementary and 14 middle school sites located in high-need neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles County, including Los Angeles Unified and Garvey school districts. The study entitled Assessment of Program Quality and Youth Outcomes: A Study of the Woodcraft Rangers' Nvision Afterschool Program is one of the few ever conducted in the United States to directly measure program quality and its impact on student academic and behavioral outcomes.

In 2009, Woodcraft Rangers contracted with Irvine, Calif.-based EVALCORP (www.evalcorp.com) to study its Nvision afterschool program, which is offered at more than 70 Los Angeles County public school sites, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 PM and reaching more than 18,000 at-risk youth. While past studies conducted by the afterschool community have shown that regular attendance in high quality afterschool programs is associated with positive development outcomes for school-age youth, rarely have they directly tested the relationships between afterschool program quality and student outcomes.

Using quality and outcome data from the Nvision 2008/2009 program year, the Woodcraft Rangers study primarily sought to explore the quality of implementation of the Nvision afterschool program model, and to examine whether and how quality is associated with student outcomes. The Nvision areas used for assessing quality fell into five general categories: activities, collaboration, staffing, school partnership, and youth involvement.

The Woodcraft Rangers study's findings define a way to measure quality accurately and efficiently while producing program improvement information that can be implemented by the staff. Significantly, the study confirmed that afterschool program quality impacts youth outcomes even beyond demographics and participation level. The importance of this study, not only for Woodcraft Rangers but the national afterschool community, is the confirmation that afterschool program quality needs to be understood and defined in terms of outcomes.

"Afterschool programs like Nvision uplift not only the students who participate in them, but their families and greater community as well." stated Cathie Mostovoy, CEO of Woodcraft Rangers. "In these budget-conscious times, the model that we created in our study can potentially work for any after-school provider in the country looking for a way to assess quality that relies on well informed input and engages onsite staff in the improvement process.

"If anything," Mostovoy continued, "we have definitely learned that quality is not a one-size fits all proposition, and that expectations differ between elementary and middle school outcomes. This study has given us a foundation for assessing quality in a way that we know will help maximize the effectiveness of the Nvision program, making each site truly responsive to the needs of its students and helping them to explore pathways to purposeful lives."
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Editor's Note #1
To request an Executive Summary or a copy of the full report, please contact Cathie Mostovoy at (213) 249-9293, ext. 231 or cmostovoy@woodcraftrangers.org.
For additional bullet points highlighting key study points, please email Kathy Pinckert at katpinckert@earthlink.net
About Woodcraft Rangers
Woodcraft Rangers is a 501(c)(3) organization incorporated in 1922 and currently operates Nvision afterschool programs at more than 70 public schools throughout Los Angeles County. In 2010, Woodcraft Rangers served more than 18,000 students aged 6 to 18, a majority of whom are low-income and who would not otherwise have opportunities to participate in afterschool activities or sports programs.
Press Contact: Cathie Mostovoy, CEO
woodcraft Rangers
Tel: 213.249.9293, ext. 231
Cell: 213.305.8069
Email: cmostovoy@woodcraftrangers.org
Press Contact: Kathy Pinckert, Media Relations Advisor
Woodcraft Rangers
Tel: 949.887.0106
Email: katpinckert@earthlink.net