Chapter 11: The Growth, Evolution, and State of OST Evaluation

The evolution of out-of-school time (OST) evaluation has been closely intertwined with the programmatic maturation of the field over the last two decades. The questions explored in OST evaluations reflect shifts in OST goals and policies over that time period, broadly moving from an emphasis on demonstrating the need for OST programs and generating evidence of their impact on the educational and social development of youth to examining the quality of OST implementation and the capacity of programs to contribute to successful learning and life outcomes for youth.

Evaluation has not been a passive bystander in this evolution; rather, evaluation findings have sometimes illuminated critical tensions about the expected role of OST programs and the anticipated pathways between OST program services and desired outcomes. OST evaluations have also evolved to reflect shifts in the priorities in the goals and expectations for OST programs within the educational landscape and new developments in evaluation methodologies and tools.