In 1999, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched an afterschool initiative to bring greater access to digital technology in local communities. Over the years, the program was re-named the Community Connect Network and began to focus more on at-risk youth, people with disabilities, homeless people, immigrants, Native Americans and people living in isolated rural communities.
In 2003, a multi-year evaluation of the program was begun by MGS Consulting. In 2005, this group decided to incorporate the Search Institute's development assets profile with program participants. Assets, as you probably know, are experiences and qualities that research has shown to be essential to healthy development in adolescents. Quantitative results place kids in one of four asset categories--low, fair, good, or excellent--in five areas of their human ecology: personal, social, family, school and community.
A total of 39 sites were studied and included both "high touch" sites having a level of structure, rules and learning requirements, and "low touch" sites that operated more informally often on a drop-in basis and with few or no requirements for participation. In addition, face-to-face interviews were conducted.
In sum, the researchers looked at three distinct measures--
- Development Assets Profile (DAP)--a measure of positive adolescent experiences and qualities including feelings of empowerment, constructive use of time, commitment to learning, social competency and positive self-identity.
- Technological fluency--defined as a youth's ability to understand, explain and discuss technical tools and concepts.
- Outlook for the future--a measure of youths' hopes and aspirations for themselves.
Initially, the researchers thought they would find distinct differences between the high touch and low touch sites. But what they actually found was unexpected.
"At sites that didn't have a policy structure and curriculum, the kids were advancing and doing challenging work. So it became not such much about what the experience of the children was if there were behavioral outcomes and expectations, and whether there was an investment not in just the technology, but in how people behave," said one of the researchers.
By the end of the evaluation period, nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of those who scored in the "low" DAP category had moved into the "fair" or "good" categories, and one third who scored in the "fair" category had moved into the "good" or "excellent" category. These shifts are thought to significantly reduce youth's likelihood of engaging in problem behaviors and increase their likelihood of engaging in positive behaviors.
In addition, technical fluency increased with time spent in the program with expected higher gains in those youth in "high touch" programs. Fluency seemed to peak between one and three years in the program, indicating a need to refresh and extent program content to keep long-time enrolled youth engaged.
Interestingly, sites that showed the best overall outcomes for youth included both high and low-touch sites. The kids in the low-touch locations, for example, reported using computers for homework and other tasks directly related to school assignments--a focus that they reported more than the kids in high-touch programs.
The most successful programs, based on this evaluation, were either those that had really high structure--significant behavior consequences, or attendance requirements or a curriculum, or an admissions test--or they had adults who were themselves consistent and caring and who imposed some sort of standard of behavior and conduct. In addition, successful programs also had
- high levels of parent participation
- a safe place
- space that "felt good" to youth
- adults who taught "soft skills" like teamwork, cooperation, and professional presentation.
Source: Russell, J. (2009). "Technology boosts youth assets." Youth Today (July/August) p. 21.
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