About NIOST


For nearly 30 years, the National Institute on Out-of-School Time at Wellesley College has moved the afterschool field forward through its research, education and training, consultation, and field-building. Much of NIOST’s work has encompassed projects of national scope and influence, several representing “firsts” for the field and many focusing on building out-of-school time systems.

Expertise in Field-Building: NIOST has played a lead role in a wide range of system-building initiatives across the country. Each of these projects has employed and refined a multi-level, multi-faceted, collaborative approach, integrating research, evaluation and/or promising practices as part of efforts to build staff skills, improve program quality, and create stronger, sustainable afterschool systems. These system-building initiatives include projects such as the MOST (Making the Most of Out-of-School Time) system-building initiatives in Boston, Chicago, and Seattle, funded by the Wallace Readers’ Digest Fund; and the San Jose 4Quality initiative and Building a Skilled and Stable Workforce Project, funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

Research & Evaluation Expertise: NIOST has worked at the forefront of out-of-school time research and evaluation for many years. Some of NIOST’s research and evaluation projects have included the first national standards for afterschool programs. These standards later became the basis for the National Improvement and Accreditation System (NIAS) which was developed as a partnership with the National Afterschool Association (NAA), and development of an outcomes evaluation system for Massachusetts Department of Education 21st Century Community Learning Center grantees. This work has included extensive training of grantees in theory of change evaluation methods, and the development of two measurement tools, the Survey of Afterschool Youth Outcomes (SAYO) and the Assessing Afterschool Program Practices Tool (APT), the set of integrated tools that now comprise the Afterschool Program Assessment System (APAS).

NIOST is part of the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College.

 

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