The Forum for Youth Investment, a non-profit, non-partisan action tank, has released a review of youth outcome tools. According to the Forum for Youth Investment, "Everyone who runs a youth program believes in their hearts that their program helps kids - but in their heads, they know they need convincing data to prove it. A new guide from the Forum for Youth Investment - From Soft Skills to Hard Data: Measuring Youth Program Outcomes - is here to help them get the data they need. "The guide addresses a common problem throughout the youth field: We know that out-of-school time (OST) programs can help youth develop skills and attributes they need to be ready for college, work and life - such as communications, collaboration, critical thinking and self-direction - but few OST programs have the tools to effectively measure those outcomes. From Soft Skills to Hard Data reviews eight youth outcome measurement tools that are appropriate for use in afterschool and other settings." The guide rates NIOST's Survey of Afterschool Youth Outcomes (SAYO) tool as having the highest level of available validity evidence of the eight tools surveyed. |
