Every Hour Counts Measurement Framework

What youth outcomes are important to track? What tools exist to measure young people’s critical personal and social skills? How can afterschool and expanded learning practitioners use data to improve their expanded learning systems?
 

Measurement Framework

To better understand the answers to these questions, AIR worked with Every Hour Counts, a coalition of citywide organizations that increase access to quality learning opportunities by providing learning and enrichment through afterschool, summer, and other initiatives, to develop a framework that identifies priority outcome measures for expanded learning systems to track at the youth, program, and system levels. The measurement framework outlines the desired outcomes, measurement tasks, data use opportunities, connections to other levels, and the research base for a variety of critical processes and outcomes for afterschool and expanded learning systems.
 

Literature Review

As it was in the process of revising its 2008 measurement framework to reflect changes in policy, practice, and research, Every Hour Counts also commissioned AIR to write a literature review to define the key elements, processes, and outcomes of expanded learning systems. The review informs the outcomes selected for inclusion in the revised framework, which consists of 8 elements and 28 outcomes, across three levels of organization: system, program, and youth. As such, the review is organized to parallel the framework.

The review aims to understand promising practices employed by systems that may support program-level quality, the best program practices that may ultimately promote positive youth outcomes, and the specific youth outcomes that programs can influence which ultimately lead to academic and life success. The review draws primarily from the fields of positive youth development, afterschool, and out-of-school time but also draws on research in health, education, early childhood, and prevention. It contains peer-reviewed research as well as promising practices, policy briefs, and research reports published by national think tanks and associations.