1. Digital Badges: Summer 2016 Kickoff Meeting
May 6, 2016

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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%

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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