NWREL's experience with afterschool programs dates from the beginning of the 21st Century Community Learning Center grants, when NWREL staff conducted bidders conferences for the Northwest region. The resulting relationships with grantees led to a variety of evaluation, training, and technical assistance roles for staff from NWREL's Center for Education, Career, and Community. Recently, NWREL conducted formative, capacity-building evaluations for 116 sites in 12 different programs in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, and from that work published Out of School Time Program Evaluation: Assessing What Works, a resource guide for evaluation of afterschool programs.
NWREL has also provided training for 21st Century site staff
in tying activities to mathematics curriculum standards in
Oregon, using Math Partners materials that provide grade-appropriate
enrichment experiences for students. NWREL staff is on-call
for technical assistance for program staff who seek solutions
to emerging problems. The relationships among NWREL staff and
afterschool program leaders have instilled NWREL staff with
a broad understanding of the issues and concerns of program
staff, and especially the challenges of implementing activities
that support school curricula. NWREL has experience in evaluating
the effectiveness of afterschool programs. (See Identification and validation of promising and exemplary practices, below.)
A substantial portion of NWREL's work through its regional Comprehensive Assistance Center focuses on reading instruction through the national Reading Success Network. In partnership with the Bank Street College of Education, NWREL also provides training and technical assistance to Corporation for National and Community Service projects across the nation focused on literacy and education, with a special focus on tutoring for reading.
Identification and validation of promising and exemplary practices
NWREL is evaluating the Anchorage, Alaska School District afterschool programs at 17 elementary schools and five middle schools. The work, which began in 2001, includes site visits to all of the schools, design and compilation of fall and spring participant surveys and spring teacher surveys, and focus groups with program coordinators and school principals. NWREL staff also assist the district with data synthesis and presentation. Through site visit write-ups, best practices have been documented and shared. Compiled survey data have been included in the annual performance report required by the federal government.
NWREL's Partnership Role
The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) provides regional afterschool outreach and technical assistance for the Partnership. It serves two of eight regions, working with state education agency staffs, local sites, and other key regional contacts to help identify and validate effective practices, and providing training and technical assistance. Technical assistance staff include a content-area specialist addressing literacy, one of the Partnership’s six priority areas. NWREL has developed the literacy component of the Partnership's Afterschool Training Toolkit.
Project Staff
Eve L. McDermott, Regional Technical Assistance Coordinator.
Dr. McDermott is presently a senior program director,
with expertise in community education, program evaluation, contextual
learning, or organizational development. She leads NWREL’s
Center for School, Family, and Community, which includes five
programs: Volunteer Leadership; Education, Career and Community;
Child and Family; the Equity Center, and the National Mentoring
Center. Dr. McDermott also serves on the Oregon Department
of Education Implementation Taskforce for the 21st Century Community
Learning Centers. Her recent publications include Teacher
and Student Survey Results, 21st Century Community Learning Centers
Program, Anchorage School District (2002). She
has been a member of the evaluation team for the AmeriCorps VISTA,
Corporation for National and Community Service, Curriculum Redesign,
and on the steering committee for Mentor Texas.
Dr. McDermott has a BA in Psychology from the University
of New Hampshire, an MS in Management from Marylhurst College,
Marylhurst Oregon, and an EdD in community college leadership
from Oregon State University.
Brenda Britsch, Senior Program Advisor
Dr. Britsch is a senior associate with primary responsibility
for evaluation and technical assistance in the areas of afterschool,
middle school, art in education, gender equity, and community
schools. She leads and coordinates program evaluations, resource
materials development, and training. Dr. Britsch has been
with NWREL since 1999; before that she served as an evaluation
associate with the Pro-Youth Coalition, in Santa Barbara,
California. Her areas of expertise include program evaluation
and out-of-school time programming. Recently, she co-authored Out-of-School
Time Program Evaluation: Tools for Action (2003).
Dr. Britsch holds a BA in Psychology from the University
of Arizona and an MA and PhD in educational psychology
from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Nicky Martin, Advisor
Ms. Martin designs and delivers training for the Partnership and contributed to the development of the Literacy Interim Materials. She has been with NWREL since 2000 and in addition to her work with 21stCCLC grantees, she provides training and technical assistance and coordinates Web and print product development for national service tutoring and out-of-school time programs through the LEARNS project. Prior to joining NWREL, Ms. Martin worked as an adult educator and developed training materials and curricula for small business.
Ms. Martin holds a BA in Literature from the University of
California, Santa Cruz, and an MA in comparative literature
from the University of Washington.
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