Digital Badges: Summer 2016 Kickoff Meeting May 6, 2016

Agenda for this morning Time Activity 8:50 Welcome and Introductions 9:00 Overview of Boston Beyond’s Badging System Ellen Dickenson, Boston Beyond 9:10 Panel Discussion: How Does Badging Work in Practice? Emily Duncan, MathPOWER Jenna Nackle, Sociedad Latina Latarsha Ancrum, DotHouse Health Tyler Simpson, Hale Reservation Moderated by Kelsey Cowen, Boston Beyond 9:45 Small Group Discussions Immediate reactions– how could I use badges in my program? What does a badge mean to you? 10: 15 Share Out & Wrap Up

X 10 different badges are available for students to earn 5 Skills Communication Critical Thinking Engagement in Learning Perseverance Teamwork 2 Types of Recognition Achievement Growth

Practical demonstration of skill-development BASB’s badges currently rely on one of three ways to measure skill development Student self-report Adult observation Practical demonstration of skill-development Young people report on their own perceptions of their own grasp of certain skills, either by completing a survey or responding to interview questions Advantages: Captures youth’s sense of their own strengths and challenges Reflects extent to which young person is developing image of self as skilled individual Disadvantages: Not an objective measure of change; influenced by young person’s attention to task in hand and aspects of their self-image that can impact self-perception Adults working closely with young people in school or program settings observe and rate changes they see in a young person’s skill mastery over time A degree more subjective Captures ability of young person to display skill through behaviors and attitudes Some skills are more externally demonstrated than others e.g. an improvement in organization may be easier to observe externally than an improvement in self-awareness Does not necessarily imply change has been recognized by the young person Young people work on tasks, activities or projects that provide personal or public demonstrations of their exploration and development of a certain skill Tangible outcomes that can demonstrate growth to the young person and to other people Creates evidence of skill gain that can be used by young people and programs to demonstrate progress Qualitative measure; difficult to quantify degree of change, or to aggregate to draw conclusions about a program’s efficacy.

To award badges, BASB’s partners use the SAYO T to assess skill development Validated pre/post survey completed by educators about each individual student Developed by NIOST and Massachusetts DESE Measures 9 skill areas

Process for awarding badges Educator who knows (or will know) each student best records pre and post SAYO-T observations of student Program records student attendance Students with >80% attendance are eligible to earn badges

Process for awarding badges (cont.) Students who have been observed to use these skills “most of the time” (4 out of 5 on the SAYO-T) are eligible to earn an achievement badge Students whose SAYO-T score increases by at least 1 point between the pre and post observation are eligible to earn a growth badge Given this criteria, badges are awarded at the discretion of the program.

In Summer 2015, 54% of students met the criteria to earn at least one badge. Together, they earned a total of 1139 badges. Communication 20% Note: We saw roughly the same results in 2015 as we did in 2014, when attendance and the SAYO T were used for program evaluation purposes, but not badging. While this is not a comprehensive research study, it does suggest that the SAYO T might be as reliable a tool to use for badging as it is for program evaluation. Perseverance 19%

Agenda for this morning Time Activity 9:10 Panel Discussion: How Does Badging Work in Practice? Emily Duncan, MathPOWER Jenna Nackle, Sociedad Latina Latarsha Ancrum, DotHouse Health Tyler Simpson, Hale Reservation Moderated by Kelsey Cowen, Boston Beyond 9:45 Small Group Discussions Immediate reactions– how could I use badges in my program? What does a badge mean to you? 10: 15 Share Out & Wrap Up

How does badging work in practice? Emily Duncan Director of Programs, MathPOWER Jenna Nackle STEAM Teams Coordinator, Sociedad Latina Latarsha Ancrum Youth Development Specialist, DotHouse Health Tyler Simpson Director of Operations, Hale Reservation Moderated by Kelsey Cowen Data Fellow, Boston After School & Beyond

Agenda for this morning Time Activity 9:45 Small Group Discussions What are your immediate reactions to the panel’s experience last summer? Take a few minutes to ask the panelists any follow-up questions. You find out that one of your students earned a badge in their summer program last year. What does that mean to you? 10: 15 Share Out & Wrap Up

Next steps Discuss the potential of implementing badges this summer with program team Let Ellen know if your program will participate in badging by May 20 Participate in YouthServices and badging orientation webinar in June Log parental consent forms in YouthServices by the first week of programming