SEARCH FOR RESOURCES
This guide compares purpose, structure, content, and technical properties of assessment tools for out-of-school time programs. With growing interest in quality, this information can be helpful to cities or states that are examining available tools for assessment. This resource is older, but will give you a preliminary idea of the choices available. You should follow up by going to the primary websites to learn more and get updated information.
On March 21, 2017 NCASE hosted a webinar as part of the National Afterschool Alliance (NAA) Conference in Dallas, Texas. The event was broadcast live. Attendees learned about the history of efforts to professionalize the field and the current state of affairs, and heard from state representatives on how they are addressing key OST workforce issues, such as core competencies, professional development, and compensation. Presenters shared both national lessons learned and examples from state level efforts.
Topics for discussion included: Data on the OST workforce and efforts to professionalize the field; the role of higher education and efforts to advance credentials or certification and building a system that spans the continuum of care, from early childhood to school-age and beyond.
On December 1, 2016 the National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment (NCASE) facilitated a 20-minute virtual tour of its Resource Library. Participants learned how this curated collection of tools, information, and examples of promising practices can inform and support efforts to increase access and to improve the quality of programs for school-age children. Presenters showed how to search the Resource Library to find resources that address a wide range of out-of-school time topics, including:
* Quality improvement
* Family engagement
* Professional development
This website is focused on how to build sustainable systems that raise quality, alignment, and efficiency within the early childhood field. It provides theory (e.g., frameworks and research-based models) along with guidance on how to translate theory into action (e.g., state examples and resources). Although geared toward early childhood, the concepts are applicable for school-age administrators too.
This website offers links to thousands of publications and data sets related to child care and early education. Data and resources can be searched by author, state, or topic. For information on out-of-school time issues, try typing in "after school" in the search bar.
This report provides a portrait of the early childhood workforce compared to 25 years ago, and examines economic insecurity and use of public benefits among this predominantly female, ethnically diverse workforce. Although not addressed specifically in this report, workforce conditions are similarly an important issue for the school-age/Out-of-School Time (OST) field.
This article presents recommendations from the RAND Corporation report, "Getting to Work on Summer Learning." Specifically, it focuses on those recommendations related to the hiring and training of teachers for school district-run summer learning programs. To ensure a successful summer, the report and article emphasize the need for districts to begin planning by January, to hire early, and to provide professional development and coaching for teachers. Recommendations in the report come from examination of summer programs offered in Massachusetts, Ohio, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania and New York.
On October 18, 2016 the National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment (NCASE) hosted a webinar designed to explore strategies for building sustainable quality improvements, ways to engage school-age programs, create standards, select assessment tools, and provide support. Participants learned about national trends and promising practices from two states and shared strategies to build a system that works.
Topics for the webinar included state examples of:
• Building sustainable quality improvements
• Engaging school-age programs in quality improvement systems
• Promising practices around creating standards, selecting assessment tools, and providing support
This report offers recommendations to build a workforce that is unified by the foundation of the science of child development and early learning and the shared knowledge and competencies that are needed to provide consistent, high-quality support for the development and early learning of children from birth through age 8.
On October 5, 2016 the National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment and the National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance came together to offer an interactive webinar session to help better understand the needs of States, Territories, and Tribes around supporting school-age children in family child care. The National Association of Family Child Care presented an overview of the current status of family child care and supports for providers. Topics for the webinar include:
•The importance of family child care in supporting school-age children and their families
•Challenges facing family child care providers and the States, Territories, and Tribes that support them
•Examples of strategies and resources to support family child care, with a focus on school-age