Young People and STEM: Did You Know That...

By Sam Piha

In 2012, a report entitled Where are the STEM Students? What are their Career Interests? Where are the STEM Jobs? was published. This report focused on high school aged youth and STEM careers. Below are some findings cited in that report.

• One out of four high school students indicates interest in pursuing a Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics major or career. 

• High school seniors are about 10% less likely than high school freshmen  to indicate interest in STEM majors and careers. 

• Male students are over three times  more likely to be interested in STEM majors and careers, compared to female students.

• While the gender gap in STEM interest had remained relatively steady over the past two decades, it is now increasing  at a significant rate. 

• Mechanical Engineering is the most popular major/career choice among STEM students, followed by Biology. 

• Nearly one-third of students with STEM major or career interest will be the first in their families to attend college.  

• Female students are significantly more likely to be interested in the STEM majors/careers of Biology, Chemistry, Marine Biology and Science. 

• Hispanic students with STEM interest are significantly more likely to be first generation college-bound, compared to other ethnic groups. 

• STEM major/career interest among high school seniors has increased by over 20% since the graduating class of 2004. 

• Engineering and Technology interest are on the rise, while interest in Science and Mathematics has decreased over the past few years.

• American Indian students are the most likely to be interested in Engineering, compared to students of other ethnic groups. 

• One-quarter of students interested in STEM majors or careers are taking Advanced Placement courses in high school. 

• Since the graduating class of 2000, African American interest in STEM majors/careers has dropped by nearly 30%. 

• STEM students are more likely to prefer attending a small or medium-sized college that is close to home, compared to non-STEM students. 

• Interest in Electrical/Electronic Engineering is higher among underrepresented ethnic groups, compared to Asian and Caucasian students. 

• Students with STEM interest are nearly twice as likely to be interested in attending a vocational or technical college, compared to students without STEM interest. 

• Male students are significantly more likely to be interested in the STEM majors/ careers of Mechanical Engineering, Game Design/Development, and Computer Science. 

• Four years ago, high school seniors were 50% more likely to report being interested in Mathematics majors and careers than seniors today. 

• Female students are over twice as likely to be interested in Environmental Science, compared to male students. 

Defining Youth Outcomes for STEM Learning in Afterschool (Part 2)

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

Recently, we learned that the Afterschool Alliance has a staff person dedicated to the STEM movement in afterschool programming. We also learned that she was a leader in a recent study, which worked with afterschool stakeholders to identify honest youth outcomes of STEM afterschool and summer programs. What we found most interesting about her study was her findings about which outcomes afterschool leaders were most/least confident they could demonstrate. Using this "weighted" approach to discussing the proposed youth outcomes was very useful in raising issues and questions worth exploring.

Dr. Anita Krishnamurthi

Below is the second part of our interview with Dr. Anita Krishnamurthi, Director of STEM Policy at the Afterschool Alliance. In this interview, Dr. Krishnamurthi discusses her new study and the relevance of the Learning in Afterschool & Summer learning principles. 

Q: In a recent article in Education Week, you noted that afterschool leaders are pessimistic about being recognized for their STEM work. Can you say more? 

A: We have always known that current assessment measures don’t adequately capture the outcomes of informal science education programs.  Our study revealed that afterschool practitioners in particular believe there aren’t assessment tools to capture the impact of their programming as described by this set of outcomes and indicators. 

Additionally, the attitudinal and affective outcomes of STEM programming are often not valued as much as pure content knowledge. Informal science education programs, including afterschool, often have tremendous impact on these issues, but a large part of their contributions are not valued as being as essential as content knowledge. People are consequently a little discouraged, but that doesn’t mean we stop doing this very important work. It just means that we continue to make the case for a more holistic approach to STEM education reform and ensure that new assessment tools can measure all that we know is important. 

It is worth keeping in mind that there has been tremendous progress over just the past few years – the afterschool field has embraced STEM programming and there are amazing and innovative afterschool STEM programs running all over the country now. Afterschool programs are increasingly recognized as key partners in STEM education and we are now discussing details of assessment.  We’ve come a long way!

Q: How do you see STEM work in afterschool and summer programs aligning with the new Common Core State Standards? 

A: The Common Core Standards emphasize higher-order thinking skills and also offer the opportunity to adopt more of an inter-disciplinary approach. STEM fields are by nature extremely inter-disciplinary even though they may be taught as very separate topics. Math is the language of science, and scientists and engineers also need to communicate about their work with each other and with other interested parties including the lay public. The Common Core Standards offer an opportunity for schools and afterschool/summer programs to partner even more deeply to structure hands-on team-based opportunities and projects.

The release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) later this spring could also provide a great opportunity for afterschool and summer programs.  NGSS emphasizes the cross-cutting practices of STEM fields in addition to the content. It will be difficult for schools to implement the NGSS by themselves.   Afterschool and summer programs can partner with schools to ensure that young people have experiences that complement school-day learning so that we achieve that ecosystem for learning.


Q: The Learning in Afterschool & Summer project names five key learning principles that should characterize our out-of-school programs - learning that is active, collaborative, meaningful, supports mastery, and expands horizons. Can you say a few words about each of these principles and how they relate to good STEM learning and teaching? 


A: These principles are exactly what learning in general should be about, not just out-of-school-time learning! You will notice that the youth outcomes and indicators we found in our study are completely in line with the five principles of LIAS. 

Our study participants expressed support and confidence that the field can support young people to actively participate in STEM programs by encouraging curiosity and developing problem-solving skills, to work in teams to conduct STEM investigations, to develop real skills and capacities relevant to STEM fields, and to develop an understanding of the variety of STEM careers available and the relevance of STEM to everyday life, including their personal lives.  




Q: Do you have any advice and/or resources for afterschool and summer programs that want to increase their support for STEM learning?  

A: The first thing I would say is that children start off as natural scientists—they are curious, they explore the world around them fearlessly and they ask a lot of questions. So all we really need to do is not stifle their natural inclinations and support them as best we can.  

But while it is good to engage with this effort in any way that you can, it is important to keep the five LIAS principles in mind so that programs can get beyond “random acts of STEM.”  We know from research and looking at program models that show positive impact on participants, being very intentional and deliberate about programming and offering STEM programs regularly and not as one-off events are critical. Setting aside time and resources for professional development of staff is also essential. Finally, partnering with STEM professionals or STEM-rich businesses or organizations may make it easier for programs to deliver STEM content and a richer experience for the young people.  

Finally, I would add that we have to change our definition of what being literate means in the modern world. STEM literacy and proficiency are as essential now as being able to read, write and do basic arithmetic. There are a lot of free resources available for afterschool and summer programs that want to offer STEM learning opportunities. The list below provides many resources to get you started and will take you to other websites with even more resources.

• Afterschool Alliance 
• Coalition for Science After School 
• National Girls Collaborative Project 
• The Power of Discovery – STEM2 (from the California State Afterschool network) 

_________________________

Dr. Anita Krishnamurthi is the Director of STEM Policy at the Afterschool Alliance. She leads efforts to advance policies, research and partnerships so children and youth can have rich STEM education experiences in their afterschool programs. An astronomer by training, Anita received her PhD from The Ohio State University, conducting her postdoctoral work at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  Over the past decade, she has been deeply involved in science education and outreach through a range of roles at the National Academy of Sciences, NASA and the American Astronomical Society.  Anita strongly believes that afterschool programs play a critical role in STEM education reform and must be treated as strategic partners.

Defining Youth Outcomes for STEM Learning in Afterschool (Part 1)

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

Recently, we learned that the Afterschool Alliance has a staff person dedicated to the STEM movement in afterschool programming. We also learned that she was a leader in a recent study, which worked with afterschool stakeholders to identify honest youth outcomes of STEM afterschool and summer programs. What we found most interesting about her study was her findings about which outcomes afterschool leaders were most/least confident they could demonstrate. Using this "weighted" approach to discussing the proposed youth outcomes was very useful in raising issues and questions worth exploring.

Dr. Anita Krishnamurthi

Below is an interview with Dr. Anita Krishnamurthi, Director of STEM Policy at the Afterschool Alliance. In this interview, Dr. Krishnamurthi discusses her new study and the relevance of the Learning in Afterschool & Summer learning principles. 

Q: How do you view the role of afterschool and summer programs in promoting STEM learning?

A: Afterschool and summer programs that offer STEM learning opportunities are critical for young people, especially those who may not have the opportunities to enroll in enrichment activities that their more affluent peers might.  We know that children from populations that are traditionally under-represented in STEM fields participate in afterschool programs in large numbers.  Afterschool programs provide an opportunity to engage the very children we need to reach out to the most, offering hands-on learning experiences that can get them excited about STEM topics and careers.  Afterschool and summer programs also provide a flexible and personalized learning environment, allowing all children to engage in STEM fields on their own terms and see how they can make it “fit” for themselves.


Q: Do these informal youth programs have unique advantages over in-school STEM learning? If so, what would you point to? 


A: We need to shift our mindset about education away from treating school and out-of-school learning as completely separate things and instead move to one where we are thinking about providing an ecosystem for learning.  In such a system, school and out-of-school learning are partners with the end goal of supporting children who are engaged and excited about learning and gaining the holistic set of skills and proficiencies they need to become successful adults.  It is very difficult for schools to do this all by themselves and it is also not fair to expect schools to do this alone when there are many willing and capable partners.  

Informal youth programs, such as afterschool programs, have some unique traits that are really well-suited for STEM learning—the informal nature of such programs allows children to play around with STEM topics without a fear of failure and to explore topics in a manner that helps to bring the school-day learning to life.  This is a really important piece that doesn’t often get talked about—proficiency is not the only thing that will persuade young people to pursue these fields.  

What is more important is that they associate STEM fields with having fun while doing intellectually interesting and challenging things, and see careers in these fields as personally fulfilling as well as contributing meaningfully to their communities and the larger world.  Interest, engagement, and proficiency are part of a cycle—they feed off of each other and we need all of these components to get to the end goal of a young person who makes a decision to engage and stick with STEM fields.


Q: In your work at the Afterschool Alliance, you recently led a study of afterschool and STEM. Why did you conduct this? 


A: We found that a lot of people are very supportive of afterschool as a concept and were very willing to consider that it could be a good partner in STEM education.  But they wanted more clarity about exactly what afterschool programs can contribute to this national priority of reforming and improving STEM education.  

The afterschool field has generally always said that it can get children excited about STEM, however, we found that this was seen as a necessary but completely insufficient deliverable by the wider STEM education community. We knew that getting children excited about STEM was a foundational contribution of afterschool programs but that children were also learning many valuable skills and proficiencies in afterschool STEM programs. At the same time, there has been increasing interest in defining assessments for informal science education in a variety of settings including afterschool programs.  

We wanted to make sure that the afterschool field had a say in this discussion and could define appropriate and feasible youth outcomes for STEM learning in afterschool.  Without input from the afterschool field, we would be saddled with measures that didn’t quite fit the setting.  We know that test scores don’t necessarily capture all the impacts of afterschool STEM programs, but we need to get specific about what else afterschool programs are able to deliver.  It is not sufficient to reject test scores as a measure of the afterschool field’s impact on STEM learning without offering other measureable outcomes that are more reflective of our impact in this area.  

We know that afterschool STEM programs have some amazing results, so our study was an attempt to define and articulate those outcomes.  We hoped this would provide the field with a set of achievable goals and also provide some common language around how to describe them.


Q: In your study, you settle on a few STEM outcomes that afterschool programs should claim. What are those? 

A: There are three major developmental outcomes for children in afterschool STEM programs that the participants in our study agreed on.  
Through afterschool STEM programs, children and youth:

• Develop interest in pursuing STEM learning activities. (“I like to do this.”)
• Develop capacities to productively engage in STEM learning activities. (“I can do this.”)
• Develop expanded value for and commitment to pursuing STEM learning activities and pathways. (“This is important to me.”)

In addition, the participants in our study identified and ranked a set of six indicators of learning, which are concrete ways that young people demonstrate progress toward the intended program outcomes with respect to STEM learning.  These start to get more specific and include items like “Active participation in STEM learning opportunities,” “Ability to productively engage in STEM processes of investigation,” and “Ability to exercise STEM-relevant life and career skills.” 

We then got even more specific and asked them about “sub-indicators,” which represent specific, measureable dimensions of the indicators. The study results indicate that afterschool providers and supporters have a high level of confidence that afterschool programs are well positioned to support and expand those sub-indicators that stress the doing of science and developing “21st century skills” such as forming questions, problem solving and working in teams. They expressed a medium level of confidence in sub-indicators that addressed larger systems level issues that they may not have control over (such as pursuing other school-based or out-of-school STEM learning opportunities) or delved into specific issues such as understanding how to pursue STEM careers.  

But we think that this set of outcomes, indicators, and sub-indicators provides a good framework for how afterschool providers can think of their youth outcomes for STEM learning. It captures what is happening but provides specific language that the larger STEM education community will recognize and value.  I also want to stress that the outcomes framework we present is not intended to represent a set of mandatory goals for all afterschool STEM programs.  We know the afterschool STEM field is very diverse and the impacts are entirely dependent on the particular circumstances of each program (such as age of participants, resources, goals, community context, etc.). You can download the study report to learn more!



_________________________
Dr. Anita Krishnamurthi is the Director of STEM Policy at the Afterschool Alliance. She leads efforts to advance policies, research and partnerships so children and youth can have rich STEM education experiences in their afterschool programs. An astronomer by training, Anita received her PhD from The Ohio State University, conducting her postdoctoral work at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  Over the past decade, she has been deeply involved in science education and outreach through a range of roles at the National Academy of Sciences, NASA and the American Astronomical Society.  Anita strongly believes that afterschool programs play a critical role in STEM education reform and must be treated as strategic partners.

A Guide to Implementing the LIAS Learning Principles

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

The Learning in Afterschool & Summer learning principles have made great inroads to the quality conversation in California. These principles serve as a core to the program quality standards recently recommended to CDE and they have appeared in several important field reports and documents.

It is not enough that the LIAS principles are well-known and being used by some programs. They have to make their way into the design of and day-to-day practice of many afterschool programs. 

To promote the large-scale integration of the LIAS principles, we developed Introductory Guide: Integrating the Learning in Afterschool & Summer (LIAS) Learning Principles in Program Design and Practice. This guide includes: 

• An interview with California Superintendent, Tom Torlakson; 
• A review of recent research on afterschool programs;
• An up-to-date glossary on afterschool program terms;  
• More information on each of the five learning principles;
• Examples of exemplar activities being conducted by California afterschool programs;
• Things that programs can do right now to begin aligning themselves with these principles;
• An observation rubric that programs can use to assess their own activities; and 
• Several orientation and training activities that program leaders can use to introduce these principles to their staff and school stakeholders. 

This introductory guide can be purchased by writing to the Learning in Afterschool & Summer project at contact@learninginafterschool.org. The purchase price of this 118-page color guide is $30, plus postage. 

We also have training resources to support this work including:

• Introduction to the LIAS Learning Principles – This is a half-day, interactive training introducing staff to the LIAS learning principles and how they might be applied to afterschool and summer programs. This training includes brief videos of national afterschool and educational leaders reflecting on the LIAS learning principles.

• Implementing the LIAS Learning Principles – This half-day, interactive training addresses methods for implementing the LIAS learning principles. It includes how to use an observation rubric to assess program alignment and explores best practices in applying these principles. This training includes brief videos of national afterschool and educational leaders reflecting on the LIAS learning principles.

•  An Extended Learning Community on Program Improvement to Better Implement the LIAS Learning Principles – This multiple meeting approach brings program leaders together to closely examine each learning principle, assess their current alignment, explore best practices, and promote program improvement through developing and implementing improvement plans. We successfully piloted this approach with program providers from Oakland Unified School District. This training includes brief videos of national afterschool and educational leaders reflecting on the LIAS learning principles, the 118-page LIAS Implementation Guide, and other materials to introduce these concepts to school and program personnel.

• Training Older Youth in LIAS Program Implementation – This one-day, experiential leadership training is designed to prepare youth to assess their own program or another program using the LIAS observation rubric. Young people are trained on how to develop their findings and communicate them with program leaders. They are also prepared to formulate ideas as to how to improve program activities. This workshop is an excellent way to involve and engage youth leaders in program improvement.

•  BRIEF VIDEO INTERVIEWS WITH NATIONAL AFTERSCHOOL AND EDUCATIONAL LEADERS – This DVD contains ten interviews with national leaders reflecting on the relevance of the LIAS learning principles. They include leading researchers, school superintendents and principals, and afterschool and summer program activists. This is a very useful tool in introducing the value of the LIAS learning principles to program staff, school personnel, and other stakeholders. This DVD is available for purchase. 

The Potential of Digital Badges

LIAS Digital Badges

The Learning in Afterschool & Summer project is working to promote the use of digital badges through our partnership with Youtopia and Public Profit. Below is a blog authored by Nikki Yamashiro that appeared on the Afterschool Alliance website. We thought it was an excellent explanation of digital badges. This blog came with a very informative video, which we have posted below, along with a video that we produced with Change Agent Productions concerning digital badges. Enjoy!


The Potential of Digital Badges

By Nikki Yamashiro

Through my work at the Afterschool Alliance, I’ve become incredibly familiar with the overwhelming number of benefits kids gain when participating in quality afterschool programs.  I’ve read evaluation after evaluation that reports the positive academic, social and emotional outcomes for students attending afterschool programs—from gains in reading and math scores, to school-day teachers reporting a decrease in problem behavior in the classroom, to parents reporting that their child has a better attitude about school.  On top of these positive outcomes, students attending afterschool programs are engaging in unique and fun, but challenging, learning experiences.  They are developing skills, gaining knowledge and cultivating their interests.  Yet, how do they show their school-day teacher, college admissions officer, potential employer, parents and friends the skills and knowledge they’ve acquired?   

A promising solution: digital badges.

First things first: what is a digital badge?  This video explains it all. You can view it by clicking here.

A new issue brief by the Alliance for Excellent Education and the Mozilla Foundation, “Expanding Education and Workforce Opportunities Through Digital Badges,” explores the potential of digital badges—a digital credential one can earn by completing projects, programs and courses, representing a specific set of skills, interests and achievements—and offers a few examples of how digital badges are currently being used. 

To help understand the potential of digital badges, the issue brief outlines the digital badge ecosystem:

Badge issuer – the badge issuer creates the competencies or curriculum and assessments that will determine if an individual has developed the skills and knowledge necessary to earn the badge.  Examples of badge issuers could include afterschool programs, schools, communities, businesses and institutions.

Badge earner – badge earners are people who want to be able to show the competencies they’ve developed to various audiences. An example is a young person who wants to apply to colleges to major in computer science, and earns a badge in app development to add to their college application.

Badge consumer – badge consumers are both formal and informal entities that want or are interested in individuals who have the skills and knowledge represented by a digital badge.  Examples of badge consumers are colleges, employers, schools and afterschool programs.

Portable/stackable – One purpose of digital badges is that they are “open.”  The ability of a badge earner to take their digital badge from one issuer to another, and from one consumer to another, allows earners to show multiple achievements, manage their badges and show them in a way that fits their needs.  To this end, the Mozilla Foundation has created the “Open Badges” standard that helps create a baseline validation of the badge, allows ease of access to badges for both earners and consumers, and allows for badge interoperability throughout the digital badge ecosystem.

Digital badges hold enormous opportunity.  They can be used in the school system, in higher education and in the workforce.  If you’re interested in learning more about the various ways badges can work in the education and workforce sectors and read examples of current badge programs, be sure to read the issue brief.  Also, check out the list on page 10 of the issue brief that links to information regarding work around quality digital badge implementation. 

Principles of Engaged Learning

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

"Engaged Learning" is a phrase that we have been hearing a lot about. It is often cited by educational researchers and leaders of school reform as a critical feature needed to retain students. More recently, we've heard the term used when describing quality afterschool and summer programs. It is a key element in quality expanded learning programs as cited on the C.S. Mott Expanded Learning & Afterschool website, and the expanded learning model promoted by the Afterschool Alliance. 

The Learning in Afterschool & Summer (LIAS) project, based in California, worked to bring clear definition to "engaged learning" by detailing five critical features of afterschool learning environments. The five LIAS learning principles state that learning must be:

• Active
• Collaborative
• Meaningful
• Support Mastery
• Expand the Horizons of Participants

The LIAS principles have been readily embraced by the California Department of Education (CDE) as key to understanding quality programming and they stand at the core of state program quality standards recommendations that are currently being considered by the CDE. They have also been cited by important field reports and tools on STEM programming and other field topics. 

We will use this blog space to explore these five critical learning principles. We will also provide videos and other resources to help program leaders better understand these principles and how to integrate them into the design and implementation of afterschool and summer programs. The video below features  comments by Tom Torlakson, Superintendent of Public Instruction for the California Department of Education; Deborah Vandell, Professor of Education and Psychology and Dean of the School of Education at UC Irvine; Andi Fletcher, Afterschool and Educational Consultant for the Center for Collaborative Solutions; Carol Tang, Director of The Coalition for Science After School; Jennifer Peck, Executive Director of Partnership for Children and Youth; Pedro Noguera, Professor of Education at NYU; Paul Heckman, Associate Dean and Professor at UC Davis; Steve Amick, Director of School District Partnerships at THINK Together; and many more!

Below are some quotes from educational and afterschool leaders regarding the five LIAS learning principles.

Bernie Trilling

“The five Learning in Afterschool & Summer principles are perfectly aligned with a 21st century learning approach – active, meaningful, collaborative learning projects that provide opportunities to expand one’s horizons and master important knowledge and skills – this is the heart of 21st century learning.” 

- Bernie Trilling, Global Director, Oracle Education Foundation, Co-Author, 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times

Lucy Friedman

“The LIAS principles make concrete the kind of learning that can and should happen beyond traditional school hours: active, collaborative learning that prepares kids for careers we can’t even imagine.”  

- Lucy Friedman, Founding President, The After School Corporation

Pedro Noguera

“I use the LIAS principles because I felt they captured many of the core elements that a successful afterschool program should have.  Actually, those principles should be reflected in classrooms during the regular school day as well.  We spend so much time focused on "achievement" and so little time focused on how to motivate students to learn. The principles advocated by Learning in Afterschool & Summer strike the right balance and make sense. The principles contained in Learning in Afterschool promote such an approach, and if applied with fidelity, could lead to real improvements in educational outcomes for kids.” 

- Pedro Noguera, Executive Director, Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, Department of Education, New York University 

Tony Smith

“I think the Learning in Afterschool & Summer guiding principles are essential. I think it is so important to have a set of core ideas that you can work around. The guiding principles and the way they’ve been compiled by the LIAS project are really important. Obviously, the work of being in relationships with people, working deeply on stuff – stuff that you care about - that matters. The thing that is fundamentally important to me is expanding horizons - the opportunity for young people to see possible futures. Sometimes young people don’t have folks around them to help them understand what’s possible for them.” 

- Tony Smith, former Superintendent, Oakland Unified School District

How Kids Learn III: Play, Creativity, Tinkering, and the Arts

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

Recently, there has been an emphasis in schools on literacy and math. Much of this has been at the expense of play, creativity, and the arts. Many schools are trying to re-introduce these things through expanded learning time. Meanwhile, it is important that we recognize that play and creativity are critical to learning, and preserve these in our out-of-school time programs. 

Join us at How Kids Learn III as we hear from leading experts in the fields of neuroscience and the new science of learning on the importance of play and creativity. Learn how the Maker Movement is right for afterschool and learn from those who are using innovative learning strategies in their work with children and adolescents.

The purpose of this conference series is to expose OST stakeholders to cutting-edge thinking and research, and consider the implications for practice in afterschool and summer programming. We are hopeful that the ideas discussed in this conference will affect your thinking about youth programming as well as your personal life and well-being. This conference is intended for youth program leaders, educators, technical assistance providers, funders, and all afterschool stakeholders. Participants will have the opportunity to meet innovative practitioners and Bay Area colleagues.

Details can be found below and at this website: http://www.howkidslearn.org/.

HOW KIDS LEARN III: 

Play, Creativity, Tinkering, 

and the Arts

October 23, 2013, 8:00AM - 4:30PM

Mission Bay Conference Center

1675 Owens Street

San Francisco, CA 94158

REGISTER NOW! SPACE IS LIMITED.

A Tribute to CNYD, Part 2

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

As a former practitioner and CNYD staff person, I was saddened to receive an announcement letter from Founder and Executive Director, Sue Eldredge, that the Community Network for Youth Development (CNYD) was closing its doors. To review the full announcement letter and where you can still access CNYD resources, click here. 

CNYD served as a true pioneer in promoting the ideas of youth development by creating youth program training methods and tools, and a large demonstration through a citywide initiative, the San Francisco Beacon Initiative. CNYD staff had a large influence on the early afterschool movement in California, producing the Youth Development Guide for Afterschool with CDE and for advocating and offering training for the first statewide high school afterschool initiative in the United States. CNYD also served as a training ground for some of the most influential trainers and consultants in the afterschool field. 

CNYD has generously allowed the Learning in Afterschool & Summer project, and other leading organizations, to post CNYD's publications and tools on their websites. You can access those by going to our research and literature page and scrolling down. Access the page by clicking here.  

You can join us in thanking CNYD for all its contributions to the field and your work by adding a message of appreciation to this group card by July 15, 2013.

I contacted Sue Eldredge for responses to a few questions. Below is part 2 of a conversation with Sue Eldredge. 

Q: What do you believe is CNYD’s legacy?

A: I think CNYD's greatest contributions to the field have been in the practice arena with breakthroughs in assessing program quality and youth experience to drive continuous improvement at program and organizational levels.  When the field was struggling to define realistic and legitimate measures of accountability and tangled in debates that mostly centered on longer-term measures of healthy development, CNYD was an important force that shifted the conversation to focus on more immediate measures of program quality and the resulting developmental experiences of young people in youth programs and youth organization settings.  We were fortunate to form a very productive practice/research partnership with Jim Connell and Michelle Gambone to

Sue Eldredge

develop the CNYD's Youth Development Framework for Practice, associated measures of quality youth experience and one of the first research-based youth survey instruments.  These tools were used in learning communities that engaged youth workers and organizational leaders in continuous improvement processes that led to some of the first examples of youth development supports and opportunities that were "measureable and moveable".  This work was recognized in the National Academy of Science's study, Community Programs to Promote Youth Development, the definitive research effort that validated the youth development field's contributions to the healthy development of young people.  This field blazing work has had long-lasting influence in the afterschool and out-of-school time fields and is evident in the widespread focus on program quality improvement.

In the practice arena, CNYD was on the forefront of innovations in training and capacity-building.  We were one of the first youth development intermediary organizations to shift from traditional training approaches to lead learning communities where practitioners knowledge was mined to promote peer exchange and learning.  Some of our earliest professional development in the mid-1990's taught practitioners how to integrate assessment into practice so they could use the data that program leaders collected to understand if the new practices they were putting into action were making a difference for young people,  These new approaches set a standard for the field of youth development capacity-building. 

In very practical terms, CNYD's talented staff and those we worked with helped shape the youth development field in the Bay Area that we know today.  When our work began no one identified professionally as belonging to the youth development field.  The community of practitioners that CNYD supported grew over time to become just that—a professional community that identified as a unified field, with a shared vision and values, common practices and standards of accountability.  Most importantly, the youth development community came to identify as allies and partners working with young people to support them to grow up with optimism in the future, in communities where healthy relationships with adults and their peers are fostered, and with meaningful opportunities to contribute, to lead and build real skills.  While CNYD is sometimes described as an important catalyst for this field development, it was the rich partnerships we were so fortunate to have at all levels that enabled all of these gains.

Q: As you look ahead, what do you see as the major hurdles that the youth development field will face in the future?

A: The youth development field's commitment to the holistic development of young people and the principles of partnership and respect for young people are deeply rooted.  Skilled practitioners have always worked with young people from this place of understanding.  In many ways we took great concern not to name the "youth development movement" as new, but rather an important shift in focus at a policy level.  The real field breakthroughs were at a practice level.  In order to keep the field alive and thriving we will need to continue to reframe and refresh key youth development principles and practices so that they are relevant to the current dialogue and focus for policymakers, funders and practitioners.  You can see this demonstrated artfully in strands of the work that are being done at the Forum for Youth Investment, the Weichert Center for Youth Program Quality and in the Learning in Afterschool and Summer learning principles that are guiding afterschool work.  There are some very promising new research understandings about how young people grow and learn, especially in the arena of neuroscience.  Aligning this new understanding of research to practice to provide new and better ways to support young people's development seems very promising.

Q: Do you want to share your future plans?

A: After so many years of leading and growing CNYD, I am pausing to catch my breath and look with fresh eyes at new opportunities. I am intrigued by the potential that neuroscience research has to inform break-throughs in practice.  I am loving having more relaxed time to spend with my nine year old daughter Gracie.  And I am extremely thankful for my years leading CNYD and for the incredibly talented and committed staff and colleagues that surrounded me.  It was a very unique point in time when so many forces and talented people were aligned to have influence.  I have been extremely fortunate to have had my personal passions align with my professional commitments.   

_____________________
Sue Eldredge was the founder and Executive Director of the Community Network for Youth Development (CNYD) for twenty years. CNYD’s work led to the infusion of youth development practice into policy, capacity-building and evaluation efforts in the Bay Area and in ever wider arenas.  A graduate of Stanford University, Sue’s past experience includes work in the philanthropic world, research, and design and delivery of training and technical assistance systems for nonprofit, educational and governmental agencies.