The Success By 6® (SB6) initiative is designed to support early care and education centers in improving and sustaining quality in Pennsylvania's Keystone STARS Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS). The SB6 evaluation report examines implementation and outcomes. The findings have implications for SB6 continous quality improvement process…

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the ways schools and other youth-serving agencies are operating. To prevent the continued spread of the virus, many schools and agencies have moved to virtual only or hybrid virtual/in-person activities. Along with adapting many other activities, schools and agencies' approaches to bullying…

One factor that may facilitate a successful reunification of children in foster care with their parents--or failing that, provide an alternate route to permanency through adoption or guardianship--is children's connections with extended family. However, because foster care frequently disrupts social connections, practitioners may need to take…

This document was produced by the authors based on their research for the report, "Family Finding Evaluations: A Summary of Recent Findings. Publication #2015-01," and is an added resource for further information. The report reviews the results from 13 evaluations of Family Finding. The Family Finding model provides child welfare…

The Success By 6® (SB6) initiative is designed to support early care and education centers in improving and sustaining quality in Pennsylvania's Keystone STARS Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS). This SB6 evaluation report examines implementation and outcomes. The findings have implications for SB6 continous quality improvement process…

The Success By 6® (SB6) initiative is designed to support early care and education centers in improving and sustaining quality in Pennsylvania's Keystone STARS Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS). The SB6 evaluation report examines implementation and outcomes. The findings have implications for SB6 continous quality improvement process…

Strong anti-bullying policies are foundational to effective bullying prevention. The Youth Bullying Prevention Act of 2012 (YBPA; DC Law L19-167) is among the most comprehensive bullying prevention policies across the United States and its territories. The law and its implementing regulations require all schools and youth-serving agencies…

Integrated student supports (ISS), sometimes referred to as integrated student services, represents an emerging field of practice that aims to address persistent disparities in educational achievement and attainment. ISS is a school-based approach to promoting students' academic achievement and educational attainment by coordinating a seamless…

Over the course of several Roundtables held with out-of-school time program providers involving dozens of organizations, Child Trends has learned a lot about the concerns and wishes of the hardworking people who run out-of-school time programs. In this brief, the author and her colleagues share several themes that have emerged from these…

Child Trends produced this Guide to assist funders, administrators, and practitioners in identifying and navigating online resources to find evidence-based programs that may be appropriate for their target populations and communities. The Guide offers an overview of 21 of these resources--11 searchable online databases, 2 online interactive…

Research on successful out-of-school time programs repeatedly has found that the caliber of a program's staff is a critical feature of high-quality programs that achieve positive outcomes. Therefore, attracting, selecting, and retaining high-quality staff has become a major objective of out-of-school time programs. To expand what is known about…

Although many program managers look to data to inform decision-making and manage their programs, high-quality program data may not always be available. Yet such data are necessary for effective program implementation. The use of high-quality data facilitates program management, reduces reliance on anecdotal information, and ensures that data are…

This brief describes different types of evaluations and sets forth five steps for selecting an evaluator that can benefit a program in the long run. It also provides some tips on the cost of evaluations. Evaluation refers to "the process of acquiring and assessing information to provide useful feedback about a program or program activity."…

Perhaps one of the fastest ways to improve the quality of out-of-school time programs would be to replace practices that individuals know do not work with practices that appear to be more effective. In this brief, the authors highlight lessons from an expanding body of knowledge about specific program practices that should be avoided or minimized…

Since the first child care Quality Rating System (QRS) was implemented in Oklahoma 11 years ago (in 1998), 16 additional statewide systems have been launched and numerous states are piloting or developing a QRS (Zaslow, Tout, & Martinez-Beck, forthcoming). As QRS stakeholders across the nation look ahead to the next decade, it is important to take…