Collecting and Using Information to Strengthen Citywide Out-of-School Time Systems

Submitted by Steve on August 23, 2011

A number of U.S. communities have been building citywide systems to make high-quality after-school programs more available to children. Many such efforts have shaped their work around the collection and analysis of current, credible data. This guide looks at the kinds of data cities are gathering, how they collect it and how they put it to use.

Published by the National League of Cities' Institute for Youth, Education & Families (with assitance from the Harvard Family Research Project and The Wallace Foundation), it provides municipal leaders and their key partners with strategies for collecting and using information to strengthen citywide OST systems. The six strategies presented here are intended to help build the capacity of communities to get and use information across a citywide system:

Collect attendance and participation information to support access, enrollment and quality improvements;
Conduct market research to assess family, youth and community needs;
Use geographic information system (GIS) technology to identify service gaps and improve access;
Develop, adapt and implement a citywide program quality assessment tool;
Conduct and support program and city-level evaluation efforts; and
Develop common, system-wide outcome measures/indicators.

Download the full report (.pdf, 1.5Mb).