A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Long-Term Professional Mentoring Program for Children at Risk: Outcomes Across the First 5 Years.

Child outcomes due to a paid professional mentoring program, Friends of the Children (FOTC), were investigated across the first 5 years of an ongoing multi-site randomized controlled trial. Participants were 278 children attending kindergarten or first grade who were identified as "at risk" for adjustment problems during adolescence. The program was delivered through established nonprofit community-based organizations. Mentors were hired to work full time and were provided training, supervision, and support to work individually with small numbers of children. Recruitment took place across a 3-year period. Random assignment to the intervention condition or a services as usual control condition was conducted at the level of the individual, blocking on school and child sex. After the initial assessment, follow-up assessments were conducted every 6 months. Differences in growth curves across the elementary school years were examined in intent-to-treat analyses. Significant effects favoring FOTC were found in terms of caregiver ratings of positive school behavior and less trouble in school, with a trend for higher child behavioral and emotional strengths. Effect sizes were in the range typical in recent trials of youth mentoring.

Mentoring in schools: an impact study of big brothers big sisters school-based mentoring.

This random assignment impact study of Big Brothers Big Sisters School-Based Mentoring involved 1,139 9- to 16-year-old students in 10 cities nationwide. Youth were randomly assigned to either a treatment group (receiving mentoring) or a control group (receiving no mentoring) and were followed for 1.5 school years. At the end of the first school year, relative to the control group, mentored youth performed better academically, had more positive perceptions of their own academic abilities, and were more likely to report having a "special adult" in their lives. However, they did not show improvements in classroom effort, global self-worth, relationships with parents, teachers or peers, or rates of problem behavior. Academic improvements were also not sustained into the second school year.

Investing in success: key strategies for building quality in after-school programs.

This paper examines the relation between the implementation quality of after-school literacy activities and student reading gains. The data are from an evaluation of a multi-site after-school program in California in which continuous program quality improvement strategies were implemented to improve the delivery of a new balanced literacy program. Strategies included: (1) targeted staff training throughout the year, (2) regular observations and coaching of staff, and (3) the use of data to measure progress. Programs struggled to successfully implement these strategies early in the initiative, but gradually improved the quality and consistency of their use. Program quality, as measured through observations, also increased. Results suggested that the size of student reading gains were positively correlated with the quality of literacy programming provided by each instructor.

Assessing after-school settings.

According to previous research, three point-of-service features--strong youth engagement, well-conceived and well-delivered content, and a conducive learning environment--lead to positive impacts in after-school settings, the ultimate gauge of quality. To assess quality at a program's point of service, researchers and program administrators should measure indicators of these three quality features. We argue that youth engagement should be the first of these indicators to be measured because it reflects both the content of program activities and the conditions of the learning environment. Next, content should be assessed to ensure that staff deliver a well-designed sequence of active tasks that are linked explicitly to the development of desired skills or competencies. Finally, assessing the learning environment can help explain whether youths' absorption of the content is inhibited by poor interactions, limited youth decision making, or unsafe conditions. In presenting and evaluating multiple measurement approaches, the authors argue that the most reliable measures are those collected from the agent (either youth or staff members) to whom the indicator is most directly tied. Engagement, for example, is an experience of the youth, content is delivered by staff members, and the learning environment, which is maintained by staff members and experienced by the youth, is tied to both agents. Findings from quality assessments should be used to feed an ongoing process of training, support, and content change aimed at quality improvement.