NYS Office of Children and Family Services Program Quality Assessment Tool NYS-OCFS PQA

1. NYS Office of Children and Family Services Program Quality Assessment Tool NYS-OCFS PQA

2. Agenda • Introductions • Overview of the 8 Features of Positive Youth Development settings • NYS OCFS Program Quality Assessment tool • Next Steps • Questions

3. Introductions • Please share with us: • Your name • Your organization (Agency, Program or other) • One positive youth development feature that you see in your program

4. Features of Positive Developmental Settings

5. Community Programs to Promote Youth Development Published by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2002 • Examined programs that target youth 10 to 18 • Focus on youth development perspective • Developed a list of features that are likely to provide better supports for young people’s positive development and to achieve youth development outcomes

6. Features of Positive Developmental Settings • Physical and Psychological Safety • Appropriate Structure • Supportive Relationships • Opportunities to Belong • Positive Social Norms • Support for Efficacy and Mattering • Opportunities for Skill Building • Integration of Family, School and Community Efforts Eccles, J. S., & Gootman, J. A. (2002). Community programs to promote youth development. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

7. Physical and Psychological Safety • Descriptors Safe and health-promoting facilities; practice that increases safe peer group interaction and decreases unsafe or confrontational peer interactions. • Opposite Poles Physical and health dangers; fear; feeling of insecurity, sexual and physical harassment; and verbal abuse.

8. Appropriate Structure • Descriptors Limit setting; clear and consistent rules and expectations; firm-enough control; continuity and predictability; clear boundaries; and age- appropriate monitoring. • Opposite Poles Chaotic; disorganized; laissez-faire; rigid; over controlled; and autocratic.

9. Supportive Relationships • Descriptors Warmth; closeness; connectedness; good communication; caring; support; guidance; secure attachment; and responsiveness. • Opposite Poles Cold; distant; over controlling; ambiguous support; untrustworthy; focused on winning; inattentive; unresponsive; and rejecting.

10. Opportunities to Belong • Descriptors Opportunities for meaningful inclusion, regardless of one‘s gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disabilities; social inclusion, social engagement and integration; opportunities for socio-cultural identity formation; and support for cultural and bicultural competence. • Opposite Poles Exclusion; Marginalization; and intergroup conflict.

11. Positive Social Norms • Descriptors Rules of behavior; expectations; injunctions; ways of doing things; values and morals; and obligations for service. • Opposite Poles Normlessness; anomie; laissez-faire practices; antisocial and amoral norms; norms that encourage violence; reckless behavior; consumerism; poor health practices; and conformity.

12. Support for Efficacy and Mattering • Descriptors Youth-based; empowerment practices that support autonomy; making a real difference in one’s community; and being taken seriously. Practices that include enabling; responsibility granting; and meaningful challenge. Practices that focus on improvement rather than on relative current performance levels. • Opposite Poles Unchallenging; overcontrolling; disempowering; and disabling. Practices that undermine motivation and desire to learn, such as excessive focus on current relative performance level rather than improvement.

13. Opportunities for Skill Building • Descriptors Opportunities to learn physical, intellectual, psychological, emotional, and social skills; exposure to intentional learning experiences; opportunities to learn cultural literacy, media literacy, communication skills, and good habits of mind; preparation for adult employment, and opportunities to develop social and cultural capital. • Opposite Poles Practice that promotes bad physical habits and habits of mind; and practice that undermines school and learning.

14. Integration of Family, School, and Community Efforts • Descriptors Concordance; coordination; and synergy among family, school and community • Opposite Poles Discordance; lack of communication; and conflict.

15. Additional Resources to Understanding 8 Features Enhancing Positive Youth Development Outcomes: Learning Environments Strategies that Work-Curriculum

16. Enhancing Positive Youth Development Outcomes: Learning Environments Strategies that Work-Curriculum • Developed by the Professional Development Program, Rockefeller College, University at Albany, through The Research Foundation for the State University of New York • Written to assist youth service organizations in efforts to increase or improve their performance levels on the Program Quality Assessment (PQA) developed by NYS OCFS. • The material in this curriculum is based on the Program Quality Assessment designed by the David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality in consultation with NYS OCFS

17. Enhancing Positive Youth Development Outcomes: Learning Environments Strategies that Work-Curriculum • Includes learning activities • Attention to adult learning principles is followed throughout the program • The curriculum incorporates group activities and skill practices that promote active rather than passive learning.

18. Overview Outline of EPYDO Curriculum Module Structure • Broken down into nine sections. • Each module is organized the same and provides the feature title, an overview of the rationale behind the feature followed by the module agenda. • Each module consists of a series of activities designed to promote critical thinking and problem solving skills, • These activities include games, brainstorm sessions, small group work and role plays.

19. Interested in learning more about curriculum? Let us know: kirsten.laclair@ocfs.state.ny.us

20. What is the NYS-OCFS PQA?

21. OCFS PQA is: • A revised, shorter version of the standard Youth PQA, which is a validated instrument designed to assess the quality of youth programs and identify staff training needs. • A set of items that measures youth access to key developmental experiences. • A tool which produces scores that can be used for comparison and assessment of progress over time.

22. NYS-OCFS PQA Quick Facts • NYS-OCFS worked with the Weikart Center to tailor an instrument based on the validated Youth Program Quality Assessment (PQA) and the best practices it measures. • The NYS-OCFS PQA reflects the 8 features identified by the National Research Council that positive developmental settings reflect. • In 2012, the NYS-OCFS PQA was piloted by select county youth bureaus and programs and revised based on feedback. (now available to all programs)

23. Researchers Agree on What It Takes to Support Development The National Research Council & Institute for Medicine list the following key features of positive youth development settings: • Physical and psychological safety • Appropriate structure • Supportive relationships • Opportunities to belong • Positive social norms • Support for efficacy and mattering • Opportunities for skill-building • Integration of family, school and community efforts Eccles, J. S., & Gootman, J. A. (2002). Community programs to promote youth development. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

24. Overview of Tool • Provides an assessment how to implement a quality accountability program • Once an assessment is made, one can develop a plan for improvement based on the data • Then carry out that plan to improve the quality of the program for the youth participants.

25. Purpose of Assessment • The OCFS PQA allows you to observe what actually goes on in your youth programs • How often do you have the time or energy to simply observe a program led by another staff? • How often do you rely on what you think happens in your programs?

26. Exercise-Using the tool Directions: Turn to the NYS –OCFS tool named in the top right corner of the “sticky”. Read each “sticky” and match it to its relevant row in the tool. Stick each in the corresponding box. Then score each row based on the evidence on the “sticky.”

27. What does this all mean? • Teams (or individuals) observe programming and create PQA scores based on those observations • Look at the data collected and identify areas for improvement. Then create an improvement plan. • Implement the improvement plan through professional development, curriculum changes, etc.

28. PQA Assessment Overview • Training (and Team Selection) • Data Collection Preparation • Observation and Note Taking • (Team Based) Scoring Meeting • Entering Scores

29. Training and Team Selection • Assessment Leader • County Youth Bureau Staff, Agency Manager, Program Staff, etc. • Assessment Team Members • at least two program staff • parents • volunteers • board member • youth

30. Training and Team Selection • Assessment Leader • PQA Basics (live or online) • Assessment Team Members • PQA Basics online • PQA Introduction online • Training by the Assessment Leader Visit www.cypq.org/takeitback

31. Data Collection Preparation • Have team members take turns observing programs in action. • Try to schedule a total of at least 1 hour of observation, divided among team members in 15-20 minute chunks. Ideally, you will observe the elements of an entire program offering. • Schedule observations of Enrichment activities. • Notify frontline staff of observation. • Plan time as soon as possible following the observations for discussion and scoring.

32. Observation and Note-Taking • Bring the back page of the NYS-OCFS PQA • Take notes throughout the offering on factual information

33. Team-based Scoring Meeting (or individual scoring) • Discuss each item and row as a team. • Have each team member present evidence from their observation notes. • Together, select the best score for each item. • Note contentious items as potential areas to focus on in your Improvement Plan. • Plan at least 3 hours for this process (remember, the conversation is the most important part!)

34. Entering Scores • Excel Scores Reporter available at cypq.org/nyocfs • Or email lynda.fleurismond@ocfs.state.ny.us to get a copy emailed to you

35. Next Steps

36. Questions?