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Session Title: From Positive Youth Development to Full Potential: Rubrics That Shift Practice and Evaluation
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Panel Session 892 to be held in San Simeon A on Saturday, Nov 5, 9:50 AM to 11:20 AM
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Sponsored by the Collaborative, Participatory & Empowerment Evaluation TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Kim Sabo Flores, Thrive Foundation for Youth, kim@thrivefoundation.org
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| Abstract:
To move the aim for the positive youth development field, from youth competence to full potential, Thrive Foundation for Youth has made deep investments in the area of thriving. Thriving is an idealized, dynamic state between the person and his or her context. The notion of thriving has serious implications for policy and programming, as it targets practices that grow a young person's pursuit of full potential. Additionally, the focus necessitates new measures that move away from a stagnant snap shot of a young person's status at any given moment, toward methods that capture ongoing growth and strategy.
This panel will share Thrive Foundation For Youth's innovative use of rubrics to influence the practice and measurement of thriving. Panelists will discuss the early lessons learned from 5 grantees over a six-month period. Examples will be drawn from youth development programs that include youth-led social change programs and volunteer mentoring programs.
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On the Road to Thriving: Implications for Research, Practice, and Evaluation
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| Carol Gray, Thrive Foundation For Youth, carol@thrivefoundation.org
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Carol Gray, Thrive Foundation's executive director and architect of its theory of change, will present how values and a body of research led to an assumption that: "If Adults Guides support youth to-identify their inner passions or "sparks"; understand and apply a growth mindset; reflect on thriving indicators and risk factors, visualize personal growth and develop goal management skills to build indicators of thriving-then, youth will be on a path to reaching their full potential." From that theory, she will share how Thrive's belief led to a landmark investment in rubrics, developed to serve two simultaneous purposes:
#1: Grow explicit language and reflection at the exact point of program delivery.
#2: Measure impact.
Carol will then facilitate reflection on this rubric innovation with the panel, asking: "How have Thrive's beliefs about rubrics played out?"
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Working at the Intersections: Rubrics That Measure and Drive Thriving in Youth
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| Kim Sabo Flores, Thrive Foundation, kim@thrivefoundation.org
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There are many misconceptions about student self-assessments: The first is that youth will not accurately rate themselves and merely give themselves high marks. The second, is that even upon reflection, young people won't revise their work. However, Carol Dweck's (2006) seminal studies on mindset demonstrate that when young people develop a growth mindset, they are able to accurately self assess and regulate. Additional studies show, when youth are introduced to rubrics and taught how to use them as valuable self assessment tools; share their adult guide's understanding of quality (Sadler, 1989); and have the support needed to improve their work; they will accurately self-assess and effectively revise their strategies (Andrade 2008). In other words, rubrics are powerful, when implemented well. This presentation will focus on the lessons learned in using Thrive Foundation's rubrics in five different types of organizations and the accelerators and challenges in promoting thriving outcomes for youth.
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Girls for a Change: Learning From the Field
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| Carrie Ellett, Girls For A Change, ellettca@gmail.com
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Girls For A Change (GFC) is a national organization that empowers girls to create social change. GFC invites young women to design, lead, fund and implement social change projects that tackle issues girls face in their own neighborhoods. As one of the first organizations to integrate the Step-It-Up-2-Thrive Theory of Change and pilot the rubrics, GFC has had an opportunity to learn from the 10 mentors and 75 adolescents using the tools. During this presentation, a staff member, a youth, and an evaluator will discuss some of the potentials and challenges, as GFC integrates rubrics into their existing curricula, programs, training, and framework.
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Integrating Thrive Rubrics With Other Youth Development Evaluation Strategies
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| Melanie Moore, See Change Evaluation, melanie@seechangeevaluation.com
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The evaluation of youth development programs has become quite sophisticated, with common practices, such as program quality assessment, use of logic models, and use of research-based conceptual frameworks guiding applied research with community-based organizations. The research-based rubrics developed by the Thrive Foundation for Youth are a promising innovation in evaluation of youth development programs. As these rubrics are implemented in youth-serving organizations, it is important for evaluators to understand the ways in which the Thrive tools can complement and integrate with more typical approaches. This presentation will illustrate how the rubrics were used alongside a logic model-driven survey and interview study of a nonprofit youth development program, called Girls for a Change, and this case study will suggest lessons for the field of youth development evaluation.
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