Toolkit for Evaluating Positive Youth Development

Toolkit for Evaluating Positive Youth Development 2Philosophy Behind the ToolkitThe original goal of this project was to provide ASI grantees with surveys that were research-based or often used by other large youthservingorganizations. Through research, NRC found that many of the evaluation surveys used to measure outcomes in youth were notage-appropriate, culturally sensitive or realistic in terms of the burden on respondents or staff resources necessary to use them in an ongoingevaluation process. After reviewing many of the existing question sets for assessing youth outcomes, NRC decided to develop itsown sets of questions and adapt questions from other surveys to better meet ASI grantees’ needs. The following criteria were used todevelop this toolkit:Gathering the opinions of youth: Using this toolkit allows adherence to principles of positive youth development — “youth asresources” and “adult-youth partnerships” — by asking youth to report how they feel about programs and how their lives have beenchanged as a result of participation in specific programs.Age and literacy appropriateness: The survey questions provided in this toolkit were developed to be age appropriate for youth infourth through ninth grades so that the opinions of all youth served in ASI programs could be measured. The questions were written foryouth as young as fourth grade and were simply stated so program participants with lower literacy levels can complete them with little help.However, a number of the outcomes that were found to be important in positive youth development programming are difficult to translateinto questions at a fourth-grade level (e.g., cultural competency). Questions associated with these outcomes are noted by a in eachsection of the toolkit or separated into basic and advanced sets of questions so program staff can choose appropriate set for the group ofyoung people served by individual programs. As a general rule, NRC found that each of the questions with a were better understood byyouth in grades 6 and above and less comprehensible to youth below the sixth grade.Cultural appropriateness: Although it is impossible to develop a set of questions that is not influenced by some form of cultural bias,NRC attempted to develop questions appropriate for most youth in fourth through twelfth grades. The question sets have been pilot testedwith youth of various ages, ethnicities and cultures to help further decrease cultural bias. However, program staff is encouraged to lookclosely at whether or not the question sets fit their program and the cultural background of participants and modify question setsaccordingly.