Program Quality
The Kent Connects 21st CCLC program participated in the David P. Weikart Center’s Youth Program Quality Initiative (YPQI) to support program quality and improvement. Typically, this process included internal and external assessments, which Site Coordinators and staff used to inform program quality improvement goals. The program had an overarching goal and two objectives related to program quality and YPQI:
- Increase ratings on the YPQA each year
- Ratings on the dimensions of interaction and engagement by the local evaluators will increase each year of the project.
- Ratings on the dimensions of interaction and engagement by the local evaluators will equal or better the average ratings of other programs in the state by the last year of the project.
Results for the objective for increased ratings on interaction and engagement were mixed. The highest average scores for both dimensions were highest in Year 1 (2016-17) at 3.6 for Interaction and 2.6 for Engagement. Though average scores fell in Year 2 (2017-18), they increased in Years 3 and 4 and then fell in Year 6. (Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, school closures, and the shift to virtual programming, formal assessments were not required in Year 5, 2020-21.) (Additional data available)
For the objective to equal or exceed the state average for Interaction and Engagement, results were also mixed. For Interaction, the program met or exceeded the state average (indicated in green in the table) in Interaction in Years 1, 4, and 6 but was below the state average in other years. For Engagement, average scores for Kent Connects were below the state averages in each year of the grant.
For Safe Environment, average scores for Kent Success were consistently near or above state averages. For Supportive Environment, Kent Success was below state averages for the first four years of the grant, and score initially declined. However, scores improved in Year 6 and met the state average. (Additional data available)
| YPQA Ratings Over Time - Cohort 13 (2016-2022) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YPQA Dimension | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | |||||
| Kent Connects | State | Kent Connects | State | Kent Connects | State | Kent Connects | State | N/A | Kent Connects | State | |
| Safe Environment | 4.7 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.7 | N/A | 4.8 | 4.7 |
| Supportive Environment | 4.0 | 4.3 | 3.3 | 4.2 | 3.6 | 4.2 | 3.9 | 4.3 | N/A | 4.3 | 4.3 |
| Interaction | 3.6 | 3.2 | 2.6 | 3.1 | 2.9 | 3.1 | 3.4 | 3.0 | N/A | 3.1 | 3.0 |
| Engagement | 2.6 | 2.8 | 1.8 | 2.7 | 1.9 | 2.7 | 2.4 | 2.8 | N/A | 2.4 | 2.9 |
