 Do your own learning first
 Take the online Basics course.
 Read through the entire CFPQA to familiarize yourself with it.
 Have several copies of the CFPQA available for staff to thumb through and explore.
 Try these activities along with the presentation:
 Have staff sort the playing cards into three piles (low, medium, and high) as a mini self assessment.
 Have staff score between one and three items based on their experiences at their own programs
 Have some staff role play a scene from a program and other staff take objective notes on what they see.
 Create example scenarios and notes and have staff use them to score a few items of the PQA.
© David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality 1

© David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality
A joint venture between the Forum and High/Scope.
2

DO NOT Proceed unless….
You plan to be completely honest in your self assessment.
Otherwise, you are wasting your time.
© David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality 3

 A validated instrument designed to assess the quality of youth programs and identify staff training needs.
 A set of items which measure youth access to key developmental experiences.
 A tool which produces scores that can be used for comparison and assessment of progress over time.
© David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality 4

Engagement
Plan
Make choices
Reflect
Interaction
Leadership
Collaboration
Experience belonging
Staff preparation Reframing conflict
Encouragement
Safe
Supportive
Environment
Skill building
Appropriate challenge
Environment Respect for family &culture Active engagement
Psychological and emotional safety
Active engagement
Program space and furniture Emergency procedures
Healthy food and drinks
Welcoming atmosphere
Physically safe environment
Youth Centered Policies and Practices
High Expectations for Youth and Staff
Access
© David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality 5

Camp Fire USA
Program Standards
I. Safe Environment
II. Supportive Environment
III. Youth Interaction
IV. Engagement
V. Youth Centered Policies and Practices
VI. High Expectations for
Youth and Staff
VII. Access
© David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality
Camp Fire USA
Program Quality Assessment
Form A:
Program Offering Items
I. Safe Environment
II. Supportive Environment
III. Youth Interaction
IV. Engagement
Form B:
Organizational Items
V. Youth Centered Policies and
Practices
VI. High Expectations for Youth and Staff
VII. Access
6

“Domain”
III. Interaction “Scale”
III-L. Youth have opportunities to develop a sense of belonging.
Note: Structured refers to the quality of being intentional, planned, and/or named; it does not refer to informal conversation.
Supporting Evidence Indicators
1 Youth have no opportunities to get to know each other
(beyond selfselected pairs or small cliques).
3 Youth have informal opportunities to get to know each other (e.g., youth engage in informal conversations before, during, or after session.
5 Youth have structured opportunities to get to know each other (e.g., there are teambuilding activities, introductions, personal updates, welcomes of new group members, icebreakers, and a variety of groupings for activities)
“Item or Item Row”
The CFPQA consists of:
2 forms (Form A and Form B); 7 domains (4 in A, 3 in B)
38 scales (18 in A, 20 in B)
Form A has 72 items and Form B has 92 items .
© David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality 7

CFUSA asks each Council to:
 conduct a program self assessment of up to five program sites
 complete one CFPQA Form A for each of the sites assessed
 complete one CFPQA Form B for each type of program in which you completed a CFPQA Form A (afterschool program, camp, club, etc.).
© David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality 8

1.
Select your team
2.
Attend training
3.
Collect Data
( Form A ) or
Gather Documentation
( Form B )
4.
Have Scoring Meetings
5.
Enter and Report Data
6.
Make an Improvement Plan
Three aspects of a constructive program self assessment process:
 working as a team
 basing scores on observational evidence
 focusing on conversations about quality
© David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality 9

1.
 Program administrator
 At least two others involved in the program
 Direct-delivery staff
 Volunteers
 Council members
 Parents
 Each program looks different, do what works for you!
© David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality 10

2.
Team members
 Trained to participate in self assessment process
 CFPQA Basics online
OR
 1-hour CFPQA Intro
OR
 Program administrator can talk staff through the process using the CFPQA
Crash Course PowerPoint presentation and the CFPQA Playing Cards.
 Staff can practice using the activities in the CFPQI Training Guide
 Stickies activity is provided on labels in the box set and the answers are in the
Training Guide
 You can make copies if you would like more people to be able to do this activity!
© David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality 11

3.
 CFUSA asks each Council to conduct a program self assessment of up to five program sites and complete one CFPQA Form A for each of the five sites assessed.
 Team members collect data by observing programs.
Plan enough time to observe a program activity in its entirety plus transition times to and from the activity.
 Team members collect objective, anecdotal records of the programs they observe.
© David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality 12

3:
(Weak Anecdotes)
1.
There was some reflection.
2.
Youth got to choose where the furniture went.
What makes these anecdotes weak?
How would you re-word these anecdotes to make them more effective?
© David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality 13

3:
(Stronger Anecdotes)
 With 10 minutes left, staff distributed index cards and asked youth to “write one thing you liked about today’s session and one thing you would have changed.” She then collected the cards.
 As youth and staff were setting up folding chairs for movie night, staff said. “How do you think we should set these up so people can see and still get to the bathroom?”
14 © David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality

Effective
• Objective as possible
• Rich detail in snapshot form
• Focus on interactions between
– Staff and youth
– Youth and youth
– Youth and environment
• Allow time for interactions to reach completion
• State the outcome of interactions
• Who, what, when, where
• Quotes: what youth and staff say
• Lists of materials
• What you see in the room
• Anecdote can stand alone
Ineffective
• Subjective terms such as ‘good’ or
‘bad’
• Rater’s opinions
• Assumptions about internal states: she felt angry; he did not get it
• Anecdotes are too vague; lack detail
• Lacking facts: what you see and hear
• Summary in the place of quotes
• Raters repeat what the indicator says
• For a 3 involving some positive and some negative, raters have one but not the other
• Anecdote does not fit the indicator
• Anecdote could support more than one score
15 © David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality

3.
Three aspects of a constructive self assessment process:
 working as a team
 basing scores on observational evidence
 focusing on conversations about quality
© David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality 16

4.
 Complete one CFPQA Form A for each of the program sites observed. Use the CFPQA Help Desk to assist with challenging scores.
 Plan a meeting with the self assessment team
 Everyone who observed or was observed
 Bring anecdotal notes
 Agree upon a score for each indicator using the anecdotal notes from the observations.
© David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality 17

4.
 CFUSA asks each Council to complete one CFPQA Form
B for each type of program in which you completed a
CFPQA Form A (afterschool program, camp, club, etc.).
 Plan a meeting with the self assessment team
 Program Administrator
 On-Site Directors of assessed programs
 Direct-Delivery staff
 The team conducts a group interview, providing documentation or evidence for each indicator.
 Visit the CFPQA Help Desk to communicate questions.
© David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality 18

5:
 Enter your scores on Online Scores Reporter
 Your login information and instructions to use the online system will come soon.
© David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality 19

6:
1.
Set Goals
2.
Measure Success
3.
Set Steps Toward Reaching Goals
4.
Ask for Support
© David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality 20

 The staff of the Center for
Youth Program Quality will be available to offer assistance as needed as you
 Please do not hesitate to contact Amanda Sutter should you have any questions or need support: amanda@cypq.org
complete the CFPQA self assessment.
734-961-6900 ext.217
 For more information: http://www.cypq.org/CampFireUSA
© David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality 21