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Year Published: 2016
Girlstart After School is a free, weekly STEM afterschool program designed as an intensive intervention to increase girls’ interest and engagement in STEM through sequential, informal, hands-on and inquiry-based activities in topics across the STEM acronym. In this selection of evaluation data from the 2015-2016 school year, participants demonstrated gains along three major categories of youth outcomes—interest in STEM, capacity to engage in STEM, and finding value in STEM.
Program Name: Girlstart
Program Description: Girlstart After School is a free, weekly STEM afterschool program designed to increase girls’ interest and engagement in STEM through innovative, informal STEM education programs. This intensive intervention involves sequential, informal, hands-on and inquiry-based activities in topics across the STEM acronym, designed to build girls’ skills in collaboration, creative problem solving, and critical thinking, as well as their STEM knowledge and their interest and confidence in STEM activities, studies, and careers.
Scope of the Evaluation: Statewide, Local
Program Type: Afterschool
Grade level: Elementary School, Middle School
Program Demographics: 100 percent girls; 64 percent Latina, 13 percent Caucasian, 11 percent African American, 4 percent Asian American and 8 percent identified as multiethnic; 74 percent low socio-economic status; 35 percent speak another language at home.
Program Website: http://www.girlstart.org/
Evaluator: Girlstart research staff (prior support from SEDL, now part of the American Institutes for Research)
Evaluation Methods: Pre- and post-surveys are used to assess girls’ STEM skills and knowledge, attitudes toward Girlstart and interest, and confidence in undertaking future STEM activities, courses, majors, and careers. Long-term impact is collected using a framework for tracking alumnae’s academic progress.
Evaluation Type: Non-experimental
Outcomes:
Below is a selection of evaluation data reported by the program around three major categories of youth outcomes—interest in STEM, capacity to productively engage in STEM, and finding value in STEM. These outcomes are an excerpt from a 2016 Afterschool Alliance paper, "The Impact of Afterschool STEM: Examples from the Field."
Capacity: I can do this
Value: This is important to me
Associated Evaluation: http://afterschoolalliance.org/documents/AfterschoolSTEMImpacts2016.pdf
Program Profile: View program profile