Afterschool Program Quality in California
Programs with high quality have larger and longer lasting impacts on its participants. It is important that all young people have access to high quality programs.
The California Afterschool Network (CAN) and the Expanded Learning Division (ELD) of the California Department of Education is focusing efforts on high quality programming. They have identified high quality program standards and actions. They recognize that high quality programming within a cycle of continuous quality improvement. This means ELD requires funded programs (aka grantees) to provide data-driven improvement plans. Additionally, CAN and ELD staff is rallying technical assistance and building field capacity towards quality. This is an impressive feat! California receives the largest federal dollars for afterschool programming and serves nearly 500,000 students.
Below are links to the ELD strategic plan, program quality standards (adopted in late 2014), and relevant media.
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https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ba/as/index.asp
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Program Quality Standards for Expanded Learning in CA:
http://www.afterschoolnetwork.org/post/quality-standards-expanded-learning-california
Crosswalk between Quality Standards and Assessment Tools:
Quality Standards Webinars:
http://www.afterschoolnetwork.org/quality-standards-webinars