Each year there is a continuous process of quality improvement among 21st Century Community Learning Center afterschool programs.  We call this the Youth Program Quality Improvement cycle (YPQI for short).  It is a cycle of program quality assessment, site-based planning informed by data, and intentional improvement through goal setting, concrete action plans, and targeted coaching, professional development, and training.  Within this framework, developed by the Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality, our afterschool programs at Walla Walla Public Schools used the Social Emotional Learning Program Quality Assessment (SEL-PQA) tool to drive our improvement process this past year.

The YPQA is a quality assessment tool based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.  Fundamentally, it refers to a pyramid of quality practices covering four domains which build upon each other.

Pyramid (Domains) of Program Quality:

  1. Safe Environment - the foundation of learning

  2. Supportive Environment - additional educator supports

  3. Interactive Environment - facilitation & skill development

  4. Engaging Environment - emphasizes reflection & feedback

Because our grant emphasizes non-academic outcomes as a primary influencer of long-term success, we also focus on six specific Social Emotional Learning (SEL) domains which are most likely to influence the development of educational skills in our students.

Domains of Program Quality we focus on:

  1. Active Engagement (Supportive Environment)

  2. Encouragement (Supportive Environment)

  3. Belonging (Interactive Environment)

  4. Leadership[ (Interactive Environment)

  5. Collaboration (Interactive Environment)

  6. Reflection (Engagement Environment)

Note: Walla Walla has been using the SEL PQA for the past 3 years, due to staff turnover Walla Walla chose to move to use the YPQA. 

Based on the assessment scores for our programs, nearly all had similar needs and improvement goals. In light of such, we focused on intentional coaching, professional development, and skill-building around:

Programs will continue to look for growth opportunities within our quality domains to best meet the needs of our students and families within a variety of different learning environments, whether that be in-person, hybrid, and/or remote/virtual.

Programs will move to be using the SEL PQA in the upcoming year.