Youth Frontiers Evaluation Strategy
We know how important it is to show our program's impact. Over the past several years have evaluated our programs in the following ways:
We know we are effective:
- Qualitative Study: Ed Sass, professor at the College of St. Benedict Education Department, conducted an independent, 3-yr qualitative study sampling over 2700 students and teachers. One key finding was that 80% of students surveyed said their school was a kinder place after our Kindness Retreat. (Click here for to see the full results.)
- Retention Rate: Over 80% of our clients bring us back year after year. This data tells us that our programs are effective through interrelated reliability. In other words, these hundreds of educational professionals who decide to bring us in do so for a reason.
We know schools use us as part of their network of support:
- YF complements current school frameworks: Our programs complement and enhance several educational models that have been proven to be effective: Social Emotional Learning frameworks, and character development programs.
We know we improve school climate:
- Discipline Referrals: In the Brooklyn Center school district where our programs are fully integrated into their network of support, discipline referrals/incident totals for grades 7-12 went from almost 3,000 in the 05-06 school year to less than half that (about 1200) in the 06-07 school year. (Note: We began working with the district Spring of 2006.)
- Additionally in the Brooklyn Center school district, Elementary schools reported incidents of insubordination were reduced by 25%.
Over the next three years, we will prove that Youth Frontiers offers evidence-based programs by:
- Conducting a Client Relationship Review: An independent evaluator (Bill Johnston, professor of research methods) will conduct interviews with key clients to learn more about the value of YF programs, and pair the findings with relevant research and literature to determine our course of action in the next three years. (2007-2009)
- Continuing the Brooklyn Center District Evaluation: YF will continue to work with Edmund Sass, Ed.D. to evaluate the third year of our partnership with the Brooklyn Center school district, looking at district data (attendance, disciplinary referrals, test scores, etc.).
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