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| Issue Schedule Summer 2009, issue # 121 Bob Granger Karen Pittman Nicole Yohalem Improving youth development and wellbeing requires improving the everyday settings where development occurs. In this issue, scholars who study three different settings – classrooms, youth programs, and mentoring dyads – reflect on (1) what constitutes quality in their setting and (2) how to think about measuring it. The authors focus specifically on quality “at the point of service,” meaning the specific practices, processes and interactions that occur among adults and youth in the setting. The articles also offer practical advice about effective and manageable ways that practitioners can incorporate assessment into their work in order to improve quality. Together these articles represent a wealth of knowledge about what is important to measure in youth-serving settings and the pros and cons of different approaches to measurement. This information can help practitioners and policymakers grapple with how to use scarce evaluation resources wisely, establish productive accountability systems, and link data and program improvement strategies in ways that make services more effective.
Fall 2009, issue #122 Ira Harkevey Hundreds of universities have established offices or centers aimed at encouraging partnerships with the community. Hundreds of thousands of college students participate in various community-based activities. However, a significant challenge of this work has been moving beyond limited (and at times palliative) community involvement towards the establishment of deep, lasting, collaborative partnerships aimed at addressing pressing real-world problems. It is these reciprocal and comprehensive university/community partnerships, and ones aimed particularly at youth development, that we are concerned with in this issue. The partnerships highlighted in this issue are notable because they involve multiple constituents from the university and from the community in their conception and implementation. Further, their outcomes extend far beyond the provision of services (though that is certainly an important concern.) In a real sense these partnerships seek to revitalize communities. In solving problems they also are intent on building civic capacity. Winter 2009, issue #123 Doris Sommer Andrés Sanin Through the Cultural Agents Initiative our love for the arts and interpretation develops constructive practices. This is a reformist step out of the ivory tower and an invitation to expand humanistic theory and artistic creativity through engagements in public life.
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Future Titles Issue #122 Issue #123
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