Co-Creation of a Youth Development Scale: Expanding Possibilities for Development and Equity in Community Education Spaces

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Twelve
  In Roundtable Session: Reimagining Out-of-School Time Evaluation and Measurement Amid Educational Inequality (Table 14)

Abstract

Out of school, community-based learning spaces are rich environments where learning and development of many types takes place. Yet, learning and development in these spaces is typically under-valued and lacks robust measurement tools. This presentation will describe how a measure of youth development was collaboratively co-created with practitioners and with youth and validated as a higher-order factor model. To co-develop the development scale for youth, a university and a national youth-development non-profit organization engaged in a multi-year evaluation partnership to operationalize development in out-of-school (OST) learning spaces. We will describe how the construct of development was defined, highlight how youth participants in the program meaningfully participated in development of the measure, and describe results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses.

Authors

• Annie Wright, Southern Methodist University
  Presenting Author

• Yusuf Kara, Southern Methodist University
  Presenting Author

• Bonny L. Gildin, All Stars Project Inc.
  Presenting Author