Capturing the Value of Out-of-School Time Experiences

Afterschool and summer learning are evidence-based strategies. Boston Beyond draws on two decades of experience to help cities create and capture the value of out-of-school time experiences. By formalizing partnerships and data management, we enable you to harness the contributions of your community’s diverse array of nonprofit, cultural, natural, and civic resources in order to help all young people thrive.

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Enhance Your Impact

Our team can help you develop a citywide strategy for mobilizing learning beyond school that will:

  • Expand the number of after school and summer programs in a voluntary, data driven network
  • Increase the number of youth enrolled and attending local after school and summer programming
  • Increase the number of learning hours beyond school delivered to local youth by local network providers
  • Increase critical thinking, teamwork, communication, and perseverance
  • Increase performance in math and English language arts for those who participate in 5th Quarter of Learning programs
Data Collection, Analysis & ReportingGrantmaking SupportAdvisory Services
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Data Collection, Analysis & Reporting

Use Boston Beyond’s measurement system and suite of evaluation tools to capture your program network’s impact and to glean insights that can help you improve program quality and student outcomes over time.

Partner Portal and the PRISM dashboard allow intermediaries and programs to:

  • Capture enrollment and attendance
  • Measure program performance
  • Measure student skill gain
  • Recognize skill growth through badging
  • Report aggregate citywide outcomes
  • Benchmark individual programs
  • Identify data-driven best practices

Additional services include Data Coaching to inform program practice is also available to intermediary staff and program providers, and a Data Diagnostic to assess the current measurement & improvement system.

grant-making-support

Grantmaking Support

Streamline the afterschool and summer program grantmaking process for intermediary staff, applicants, and awardees to make informed award decisions, collect required documentation, and capture impact.

  • Connect funding and program profiles
  • Build customized applications
  • Analyze applications against key metrics
  • Digitize key grant administrative steps
  • Impact reporting and closeout
  • Track grantmaking history by program
advisory-services

Advisory Services

Leveraging 20 years as an afterschool and summer learning intermediary and grantmaker, we support organizational leaders and their teams to enhance the impact of their out of school time programming.

Through personalized coaching, hands-on workshops, and facilitated discussions, we help address specific questions impacting your network, such as:

  • Collaborate with school districts
  • Contract with program providers
  • Develop public funding and policy
  • Establish collaborative OST agenda
  • Convening stakeholders
  • Intermediary roles and functions

Testimonials

It’s one thing to run an afterschool program—and another to run one with quality and impact. Boston Beyond helped us track where our efforts matter most…

We didn’t just receive a platform—we were supported in building something that worked for our schools.

Boston After School & Beyond’s data-driven model has demonstrated the difference that engaging summer programs can make for students.

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FAQs

Boston Beyond’s network approach can be adapted to any community—large or small. Our team brings especially deep expertise in leveraging the diverse resources and navigating the complexity (e.g., transportation, politics, bureaucracy) of urban environments. We are accustomed to supporting clients with programs that serve large and diverse student populations, including students from low-income families, multi-lingual learners, and students with disabilities.

We’re ready to meet you where you are. We’re here to help communities that are setting up partnerships for the first time and those that are further along and need an experienced partner to provide targeted mentorship. We can help you design your network strategy from the ground up or take an existing network to the next level.

Our Measurement & Improvement Services include a suite of valid and reliable data tools we’ve refined over many years in Boston. The suite includes:

  • A partner portal to track student enrollment and attendance that can be customized to your community.
  • The SAYO-Y Youth Survey, which assesses student skill development and their experience of program quality, adapted from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the National Institute on Out-of-School Time.
  • Assessment of Program Practices (APT) observation tool, adapted from the the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the National Institute on Out-of-School Time.
  • Our proprietary PRISM data dashboard to help programs analyze their data and learn through comparison to similar programs.
  • Account set up, onboarding, training webinars, user guides, and on-call support.

We develop custom service packages based on the needs of client communities. After discussing your community’s goals, we will propose a base rate for our Measurement & Improvement Services package and an Advisory Services fee commensurate with the duration of support and depth of engagement.

Boston Beyond in the News

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Boston Beyond as a Model for Other Cities

The Summer Achievers program is modeled after a long-running initiative in Boston that embeds academic instruction into summer activities.

“In Boston, we have tried to make the entire city a classroom, so we’re focused on every neighborhood,” says Chris Smith, executive director of Boston After School & Beyond, an organization that connects the city of Boston, Boston Public Schools and a vast network of nonprofit groups.

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Let’s Talk

If your community is ready to build a high-impact beyond school learning network, we can help.

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Achieve

How do you achieve tasks or goals?

The Achieve skills are Critical Thinking, Creativity, and Perseverance.

These skills help young people process information, assess situations and potential outcomes, and connect actions to future goals. When young people Achieve, they engage in disciplined thinking that is rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence; consider consequences and alternatives; and evaluate information to reach a conclusion. They demonstrate imagination and originality, and stay focused on their goals despite obstacles or distractions.

The Achieve skills are most closely associated with academic outcomes, including college and career readiness. Critical thinking is one of the most crucial competencies for job preparedness (American Management Association, 2012; Kress et al., 2005). Creativity is important for classroom engagement, which in turn can impact academic achievement (Boxx et al., 2013), and is also a crucial skill for the workforce (Hadani & Jaeger, 2015). Perseverance is associated with academic success, including higher educational attainment and higher course grades (Farrington et al., 2012; Duckworth et al., 2007; Vandell et al., 2007).

Achieve

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Critical Thinking

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Critical thinking is conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion. Critical thinking involves disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence.

Research shows that critical thinking is linked to college and career readiness. Young people with strong critical thinking skills analyze relationships between ideas, consider perspectives other than their own, explore multiple solutions to problems, and use evidence to support their conclusions.

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Achieve

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Creativity

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Creativity is exhibiting originality, imagination, inventiveness, or ingenuity.

Research shows that creativity is important for classroom engagement, academic achievement, and workforce preparedness. Young people with strong creativity skills will generate multiple solutions to a problem, show originality, ask questions, and demonstrate curiosity.

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Achieve

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Perseverance

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Perseverance is focusing on a long-term goal despite challenges, consistently performing required or important tasks and demonstrating initiative in spite of obstacles or distractions.

Research shows that perseverance is important for academic success, including educational attainment and school grades. Young people with strong perseverance skills will set goals, persist in completing a task even when challenges arise, connect a current task to future goals, and try again when they fail at doing something.

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Connect

How do you connect to others?

The Connect skills are Social Awareness & Relationships, Communication, and Teamwork.

These skills help young people make contributions to their community, and develop healthy, supportive relationships with peers and adults, including those from diverse backgrounds and cultures. When young people Connect, they work constructively and cooperatively with others, empathizing with and taking the perspective of peers, advocating for their views respectfully, understanding social and ethical norms for behavior, and sharing ideas clearly and compellingly.

Not only are Connect skills useful for a young person’s ability to interact with others, but these skills have also been shown to influence academic success and engagement in the classroom (Pierce et al., 2010; Caprara et al., 2000; Furrer & Skinner 2003). Teamwork and communication are considered two of the most important skills by employers (American Management Association, 2012). Relationship-building is an important aspect of achievement in school for all ages (Birch & Ladd, 1997; Arbreton et al., 2009).

Connect

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Social Awareness & Relationships

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Social awareness and relationships involves empathizing with and taking the perspective of others; understanding social and ethical norms for behavior; and cultivating positive, supportive connections with friends, classmates, and adults.

Research shows that social awareness and relationships are important for academic achievement and engagement in the classroom at all age levels. Young people with strong social awareness and relationship skills will show respect and consideration for their peers, form friendships with peers, share interests and ideas with adults, and demonstrate disagreement or ask questions in a respectful manner.

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Connect

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Communication

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Communication is making clear and compelling oral presentations, sharing ideas, clarifying information as needed, and adapting communication styles to meet audience needs.

Communication is important for interacting with others and conveying one’s thoughts and feelings, but communication skills are also important for career preparedness. Young people with strong communication skills will share ideas or information with others effectively, ask and answer questions, listen actively, and be able to summarize key points.

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Connect

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Teamwork

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Teamwork is the ability to work constructively and cooperatively with others.

Research shows that teamwork is linked to improved academic achievement and improved self-efficacy. Young people with strong teamwork skills compromise during disagreements, listen to different points of view, and know how to give and receive feedback.

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Thrive

How do you help yourself thrive?

The Thrive skills are Growth Mindset, Efficacy, and Self-Regulation.

These skills help young people recognize and manage their emotions, anticipate the impact of their behaviors on others, and take ownership over their actions. When young people Thrive, they believe that their abilities can grow with effort; have confidence in their ability to accomplish an outcome or goal; and are able to manage their emotions, thoughts and behaviors as appropriate to different situations. This first requires an awareness of self – the recognition of their emotions, thoughts, motivations, strengths and weaknesses.

Research demonstrates that the Thrive skills can impact a variety of behavioral outcomes, including health, safety, and good habits (Roeser et al,. 2002; de Riddler et al., 2012; Moffitt et al., 2011; Galla & Duckworth, 2015). Growth mindset has been shown to improve achievement test scores in mathematics (Dweck, 2006; OECD, 2015). Self-efficacy influences school grades and classroom engagement (Bandura et al., 1996). Self-regulation influences academic achievement, including test scores and grades (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005).

Thrive

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Growth Mindset

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Having a growth mindset is believing that talent and intelligence can be developed and improved through continued learning, practice, and effort.

Research shows that a growth mindset is associated with academic success. Young people with a growth mindset will understand that mastery comes through effort, embrace feedback and constructive criticism, and seek to learn from their experiences.

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Thrive

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Self Efficacy

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Self-efficacy involves believing in one’s ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task; is often task or situation dependent.

Research shows that self-efficacy influences school grades and classroom engagement. Young people with high self-efficacy will show confidence in their own abilities, know they are in control of their own behavior, and be open to risks and challenges.

Case Studies

Thrive

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Self Regulation

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Self-regulation is managing one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations.

Research shows that self-regulation influences academic achievement, including test scores and grades. Young people with strong self-regulation skills will reflect, plan, and think ahead; consider the impact and consequences of their behaviors; gain control or adjust their behavior as necessary; manage stress and delay gratification; and work well independently, focusing on tasks.

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Boston After School & Beyond
89 South Street, Suite 601
Boston, MA 02111

info@bostonbeyond.org

617-345-5322

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