Rhode Island

The Weikart Center began working with the Providence After School Alliance (PASA) in 2004 in an effort to create a program assessment and improvement process using the Youth Program Quality Assessment.

PASA and the Weikart Center created the Rhode Island Program Quality Assessment (RIPQA) that combines Form A of the YPQA with a customized organizational interview assessment (Form B).  The RIPQA was piloted in early 2007, and was rolled out state-wide in the 2007-2008 school year. 

The Rhode Island Department of Education has adopted PASA’s assessment and improvement process for all of its 55 state 21st Community Learning Centers sites, and requires all sites to engage in the process twice over the course of their five year funding period.  This process is facilitated by PASA quality advisors who guide site teams through the process and provide on-site advising and consulting to support sites to improve the quality of their program offerings.  The process begins with a site team-based assessment led by the Quality Advisor, who is endorsed as a reliable YPQA external assessor.  Various stakeholders, including program managers, school principals, parents, and youth works, come together to observe and assess programming.  The assessment is used as a basis to drive improvement planning, onsite quality advising, and is aligned with a schedule of Youth Work Methods workshops that are offered throughout the year.  PASA also utilizes their improvement system with most of their youth serving partners in their Providence network.