Vol. 1 no. 9 March 2007

What Parents Want

Stephen M. Pratt, President

Dear Friends:

Over the past few months, we have been engaged in a re-examination of our work at Boston Beyond. One of the central questions that all nonprofits ask in these sorts of exercises is who are our customers? You can substitute words like client or stakeholder if you prefer. But the more fundamental question to ask is, what is our intended impact? And for whom? The children and youth of Boston are clearly the group for whom we hope to have an impact, even if most of our work focuses on out-of-school providers and other systems that affect youth outcomes.

Over the past year, we've sought out and conducted our own research to get a better picture of how parents and youth view these systems and what changes need to be made in order to deliver greater value and impact. In this issue, we share the results of a survey of parents of Boston Public School (BPS) students, K-12, that we conducted last spring. The survey was made possible through grants from the Robert Wood Johnson and Wallace Foundations. In the fall, we did additional analysis of the findings, comparing the results to student achievement data as well as to the Boston Neighborhood survey.

You can read the overview of the findings or dive in deep by reading the full report (107 pgs). Here are our takeaways:

• Participation in out-of school time programs continues to rise, from 28% in 1998 to 53% in 2006, using "apples to apples" comparisons.
• While one worries about who is not being counted in any survey research that uses sampling, we made extra efforts to get and analyze data from parents in some of the more challenged schools in Boston. The results for this subset did not vary materially from the general sample.
• That said, relying on what parents think their kids are doing after school is not enough. 50% of parents of teens said their children were engaged in OST activities, while the Boston Youth Survey of teens suggest that 33% actually participate. So, while it’s important to hear parents’ perspectives, we’re going to have to build better systems to understand what young people are really doing after school.
• Toward that end, for the first time, we’ve been able to cross-tabulate parent responses on participation to BPS data on student achievement.  The result, perhaps counterintuitive, is that students who participate 4 to 5 days per week are more likely to be below proficiency than students who participate fewer days.

The good news in that last finding? We are reaching the 'right' kids, the ones most in need of services. The challenge: how to deliver OST programming that actually meets their needs.  In other words, the battle to increase participation in OST that has been the focus of system building efforts in Boston for the past decade is over.  We can proudly declare victory. But the much more important battle to develop high-quality OST models is just beginning. We have a long way to go.

Thanks for reading,

P.S. We've recently launched our redesigned website which offers in depth descriptions of our strategic initiatives, projects and networks.  We continue to provide up to date OST jobs, grants and events listings and have dramatically increased and improved our extensive research library.  Take some time to check it out.  We'd love to hear your feedback on it!