Specialized services and programs
Current and Completed Projects:
Health and criminal justice outcomes of furthering education
Future to Discover is a randomized controlled trial which began tracking a sample of 5,429 Grade 9 students originally drawn from 51 high schools in Manitoba and New Brunswick in 2004-05. It tested the effectiveness of two early high school interventions designed to help students overcome barriers to access postsecondary education (PSE): enhanced career education and a guarantee of a grant to students from lower-income families. Previous reports have demonstrated the impacts of offering the interventions separately and together on youths’ later PSE and labour market experiences. This new study uses new linkages to the Future to Discover dataset to estimate the impacts of being allocated to the treatment groups (that obtained increased education) on health and justice outcomes. It thus contributes valuable evidence to the analysis of education as a social determinant of health and justice outcomes.
Start-end date: October 2022 - March 2024
Sponsor: Employment and Social Development Canada
Evidence Review and Mental Health Pilot Community Consultation for Girls' Fund Programs
The Girls’ Fund supports programs that give girls and gender-diverse youth tools to develop into confident, resilient people, right when they need this support most. In preparation for the next Girls’ Fund cohort, The Canadian Women’s Foundation (CWF) has commissioned an update of the evidence informing Girls’ Fund programming for adolescent girls and gender-diverse youth. Based on needs identified stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, CWF is also engaging with community organizations to understand their experiences with anti-oppressive mental health approaches for children and youth, in preparation for designing and implementing an anti-oppressive mental health pilot in Girls’ Fund programming.
Start-end date: September 2022 - March 2023
Sponsor: Canadian Women’s Foundation
Youth Engagement Initiative
BGC Canada’s Youth Engagement Initiative is creating spaces and opportunities – both in-person and online – that support youth facing barriers to reach their potential, while ensuring that they are not further marginalized by the ongoing impact of the pandemic. The project, funded by Employment and Social Development Canada, has three components: it enhances and expands the Raise the Grade program (supported by RBC Future Launch) with academic supports, career discovery, mentoring, and other activities at 40+ BGC Clubs across Canada; it expands BGC Canada’s COVID-response pan-Canadian virtual programming, including support for young Canadians in accessing Club-based virtual programs and services; and it is developing and launching a Youth Hub, a multi-purpose platform for Club staff and youth that will enhance program access, quality, and youth member experience. As evaluation partner, SRDC will assess the successes and opportunities of the Youth Engagement Initiative to support access to services, skills development, and other supports, while developing insights into how the combined in-person and online programming plays a role in expanding and deepening youth engagement.
Start-end date: January 2022 - October 2023
Sponsor: BGC Canada (formerly Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada)
Plan My Path Plus: Piloting New Approaches to Increase Young Albertans' Access to PSE
The Alberta Government is developing a new tool called Plan My Path (PMP), a website designed to guide students in their postsecondary choices, with the goal to increase the proportion of the province’s high school students achieving success in accessing postsecondary education (PSE). The government will roll out PMP in 2023 as an ongoing service to high school students but wants to know how best to implement this tool to yield optimal outcomes for young people. SRDC is advising on the design of PMP, and testing potentially replicable additional features such as workshops on the tool and the coverage of PSE application fees, that could enhance take-up and use of the tool and hence its efficacy among Grade 12 students. The intent of this is that providing postsecondary education application assistance to youth in their Grade 12 year will improve their transition rates to PSE. The initial participants to receive this assistance will be youth attending high schools with low transition rates to PSE. SRDC will coordinate this PMP Plus demonstration project to pilot the additional features during 2023-24 to determine the impact these additional features have on the success of PMP, to guide the province on the optimal longer-term strategy for the delivery of the program.
Start-end date: December 2021 - March 2025
Sponsor: Alberta Advanced Education
Improving student success in Surrey School District (Phase 1)
SRDC is reviewing the school district’s datasets that could be used to undertake a study focused on understanding student transitions and success within the Surrey School District education system. The aim is to design a project to answer key questions within the context of a study of student transitions through the K-12 system in Surrey including entry from pre-K and access to PSE and the labour market, where data allow. Given successful grade to grade transitions provide evidence of progress towards graduation, the first question is what are some strategies and structures that support successful transitions? Other questions include: What does graduation mean for students? What factors influence transitioning into post-secondary education or training programs? What factors influence transitioning into sustaining employment? What are some of the barriers or limitations faced by students who don’t graduate within six years of entering secondary school in Surrey?
Start-end date: March 2021 - April 2021
Sponsor: Surrey Schools
Indigenous Students' Access to Post-Secondary Education in B.C.
The project examines the descriptive characteristics of Indigenous students in high school in British Columbia and accessing post-secondary education (PSE) to better understand academic pathways and transitions from kindergarten through to PSE. The results are intended to contribute evidence for policy development to support current and future generations of Indigenous learners to access higher education. Two specific research questions are addressed: What are the trends in access to PSE among Indigenous students in BC? and How is access to PSE related to a range of student and educational background factors, such as individual student characteristics; scores on standardized tests for reading, writing, and numeracy administered in Grades 4 and 7; participation in special programs; school characteristics and district; course choices; and academic performance. The main data source is BC linked administrative data.
Start-end date: November 2020 - June 2021
Sponsor: Employment and Social Development Canada
Grouped Evaluation of the Official Languages Support Programs (OLSP)
The Department of Canadian Heritage (PCH) supports two official languages funding programs from which several initiatives are derived. The collective goal of these programs is to: 1) enhance the vitality of English- and French-speaking minority communities; and 2) promote the English and French languages in Canadian society. These two programs represent PCH’s largest grants and contributions programs. Through these programs and their respective components and sub-components, PCH provides financial support to provincial and territorial governments and organizations to support minority-language education, second language learning, and the provision of services and programs in both official languages. SRDC is responsible for the grouped evaluation of these two programs. The evaluation will take the form of a longitudinal impact study since the first Action Plan for Official Languages in 2003, and aims to measure the achievement of the program’s medium- and long-term outcomes as well as the relevance and efficiency. The evaluation will be conducted in two phases. Phase 1 of this project consists of developing an evaluation approach and appropriate methodologies. The full scope of the evaluation will be conducted in Phase 2.
A methodology combining various methods will be used to collect primary and secondary qualitative and quantitative data. The longitudinal impact study will establish the sequences of events that have marked OLMCs and bilingualism in Canada since 2003. It will cover the national level, and if possible, regional characteristics.
Start-end date: September 2020 - May 2022
Sponsor: Canadian Heritage
Supporting Vulnerable Children and Youth During COVID-19 Through Safe and Accessible Digital Programming
The Boys and Girls Club of Canada is committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for children and youth where they can experience new opportunities, overcome barriers, build positive relationships, and develop confidence and lifeskills. With the pandemic shifting programming online, Clubs are faced with the need to ensure that child and youth safety is prioritized, and any risks mitigated. Sixty Clubs across Canada have been funded to receive training and monitoring supports for virtual program delivery, to conduct outreach and ensure families have access to online programming. SRDC as the evaluation partner will be tracking the numbers of children/families accessing virtual programs, outcomes of the online contacts, and any challenges faced along the way. Findings from the evaluation of virtual programming at participating Clubs will support a national initiative led by BGCC and the Canadian Teachers’ Federation to curate resources and identify best practices in online safety for vulnerable youth.
Start-end date: September 2020 - March 2021
Sponsor: Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada
Empowering Youth for Post-secondary Education Preparedness
This is a project intended to research and consolidate information about best practices to empower youth from lower-income families to be active participants in their own preparation for post-secondary education (PSE). SRDC is undertaking an international literature review of best practices for youth empowerment approaches and a Pan-Canadian environmental scan of existing community programs, services, and supports. As one product, SRDC is generating an inventory of current interventions for PSE preparedness for youth from low-income families, including interventions that address non-financial barriers to PSE.
Start-end date: January 2020 - July 2020
Sponsor: Employment and Social Development Canada
Early Intervention Services for Children with or at risk of Developmental Disability
The Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) is currently developing a Child and Youth with Special Needs (CYSN) Service Framework to provide overarching policy and guide investment for the suite of CYSN services, ready for a phased implementation in April 2020. SRDC was commissioned through the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research to complete an international literature review and a national environmental scan focused on early interventional services for children who have, or who are at risk of developmental delays or disability. This work will inform the ongoing development and implementation of the CYSN Service Framework in BC.
Start-end date: September 2019 - April 2020
Sponsor: Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research
Survey tool to evaluate Actua’s Artificial Intelligence Teacher Training Activities
Actua’s Teacher Training is designed to equip educators with the toolsets, skillsets, and mindsets to deliver transformative STEM education to youth, including integrating coding and digital skills and Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the classroom. Although Actua has supported educators through workshops and training opportunities for years, completing a full suite of teacher support represents a strategic growth area for Actua. Actua has engaged SRDC to evaluate the AI teacher training package, from the perspectives of network members and teachers, for launch in January 2020. Teachers are important influencers in youth participation in STEM and through Actua’s AI Teacher Training Program, Actua is hoping to broaden their reach and create deeper impact with students across Canada.
Start-end date: September 2019 - December 2019
Sponsor: Actua
The role of career education during high school in postsecondary success
This project seeks to find better ways to support youths’ career decisions and make the case for policies that prolong learning into appropriately aligned postsecondary education. SRDC is using
two rich longitudinal data sources created to test experimental career interventions through the linkage of education records to surveys of youth and parents in three provinces. The data document the lives of 7,000 young Canadians, including their occupational aspirations as high school students at age 14, their postsecondary education and earnings outcomes over 10 years. Research tasks include the team mapping the students’ early collected occupational aspirations to their course and program choices as well as outcomes on leaving high school. SRDC’s researchers are taking advantage of the experimental design, but also using non-experimental methods to analyze the factors over this key period that caused changes in career choices, and altered career pathways. The study builds knowledge about (a) how and when to intervene to assist youth in their career decision making, and (b) for whom supports are effective yet currently lacking. The intent is to help equip the career counselling profession to respond authoritatively to increasingly urgent policy questions about how optimally to structure career education for young people. Positive and negative impacts of interventions and tracking of outcomes following specific mediators of advice (such as parents, teachers, counsellors, peers) would point to future best practices and the development of tools to support the work of counsellors and guide students in their planning and decision making regarding career choices early in, and throughout, high school.
Start-end date: February 2019 - January 2021
Sponsor: CERIC
Preliminary assessment of the scale and extent of student hunger in BC's K-12 school population
SRDC is undertaking a project to define the scope of student hunger in K-12 BC public school students. This includes the degree of occurrence, frequency, seasonality, and the location of high risk areas. It is reviewing the literature, undertaking an environmental scan of funding options available to school districts to address hunger/food insecurity, and analyzing four existing datasets. The project aims include: to understand the dependencies and factors affecting student hunger in K-12 BC public schools; to identify areas for improvements; and to provide recommendations and identify options that are having a positive or negative impact in addressing food hunger.
Start-end date: January 2019 - March 2019
Sponsor: British Columbia Ministry of Education
Sector-led Evaluation of the Early Care and Learning Recruitment and Retention Strategy in British Columbia
The Province of B.C. is making a $136 million investment in an Early Care and Learning Recruitment and Retention Strategy (R&R Strategy) for B.C.’s Early Childhood Educator (ECE) sector. This sector-led evaluation is part of a larger 10-year plan to increase the quality and availability of childcare spaces in B.C. The evaluation project will help provide continuous feedback for strategies that are implemented. SRDC is helping to develop a framework that will assess the effectiveness of the R&R Strategy. Evaluation questions include: whether there is less turnover in the skilled Early Care and Learning workforce; whether the numbers of certified Early Childhood Educators are better able to meet demand; whether careers in Early Care and Learning become more popular; and whether public confidence in Early Care and Learning is increasing.
Generally, these outcomes are being measured as trends across the Early Care and Learning system in B.C. Evaluation methods include: cross-sectional surveys of providers of early childhood education and care in B.C., and their employees; creating and maintaining a unique database of the province’s providers to include licensed and unlicensed, registered and unregistered carers; public opinion surveys; media and social media analysis; key informant interviews; analysis of micro-data from the 2016 Census; and compilation and analysis of administrative data. SRDC is collecting, analyzing, and reporting on these measures to determine whether the R&R Strategy is on track to achieving its long-term goals and expected outcomes until 2022. A sector steering committee made up of individuals involved in B.C. childcare will guide the work. The project is being led by the Early Childhood Educators of BC, with funding and approvals of project deliverables through the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training.
Start-end date: December 2018 - July 2024
Sponsor: Early Childhood Educators of BC
Skills for Life: impact evaluation
This project builds on three previous phases of work and a highly successful collaboration with School Mental Health Ontario, to support mental health promotion in high school. Classroom resources (previously called Healthy Transitions From High School) have been developed to enhance the social emotional learning skills students need to promote and protect their mental health and navigate the transition from high school. These resources – together with teacher training and support – proved promising in a recent pilot test, and will soon be evaluated in a rigorous trial in dozens of Ontario schools. Results will support educators as they plan and implement student mental health promotion initiatives at the classroom, school, and board levels.
Start-end date: June 2018 - June 2024
Sponsor: Anonymous sponsor + School Mental Health Ontario
Equity in Education Collective Impact Initiative
Together, Pinecrest-Queensway Community Health Center, Pathways to Education Ottawa, and stakeholders from across the city of Ottawa, have established a collective impact initiative to address the inequity in educational outcomes for youth living in low-income in the city. The long-term vision of the Equity in Education Collective Impact Initiative (EiE) is to engage stakeholders from all sectors to come together to provide tangible interventions that draw on the learnings of the Pathways to Education ProgramTM and other successful evidence-based models to inform policy and systems changes. SRDC will work with EiE to conduct a case study examining how EiE’s collective impact structure can inform student, parent, and community-level outcomes related to educational experience and attainment along the pathway to post-secondary enrolment; as well as how EiE-led initiatives influence the collective impact structure at the community level. This project is being funded by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO).
Start-end date: June 2018 - April 2019
Sponsor: Pinecrest-Queensway Community Health Centre
Evaluating the Success of the Ministry of Education's Implementation of Financial Literacy Education in Ontario Schools
SRDC is conducting a comprehensive program evaluation of the Ministry’s financial literacy education strategy embedded in the Grades 4-12 curricula. The evaluation is collecting information from students, parents, teachers, school administrators, and school board staff. As part of the project, SRDC is developing self-assessment tools for boards and schools to support them in continuing to monitor progress and deepen student learning. Findings will be compiled into a final report with recommendations on measures to strengthen the financial literacy education strategy.
Start-end date: January 2018 - April 2019
Sponsor: Ontario Ministry of Education
High School Student and Parent Perceptions of OSAP
This project examines the relationship between aspirations towards postsecondary education and students/parents’ perception and knowledge of the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP). The project administers surveys before and after students’ compulsory Grade 10 career studies class, and tracks postsecondary access and student financial aid use over four years, to evaluate provision of new interventions including information on OSAP and the likely actual costs and benefits of postsecondary education. The evaluation framework involves a clustered randomized trial.
Start-end date: August 2017 - August 2018
Sponsor: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario
Mapping of Specialized Services available in French in Ontario
The study provides a detailed inventory and geospatial mapping of specialized services available in French to children from birth to the end of schools and their families in Ontario. For the purpose of this study, specialized services include school rehabilitation services, speech language pathology, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, child and youth mental health services, and addiction services. This comprehensive review of available French-language services provides information on what services exist, service volumes, their location and their availability in French or English as well as identified gaps in services.
Start-end date: April 2017 - January 2019
Sponsor: Ontario Ministry of Education
Learning more from the BC AVID Pilot Project: impacts of program delivery on postsecondary persistence
This project examines the long-term impacts of BC AVID on students’ post-secondary outcomes by obtaining up to four more years of updated postsecondary records. It is the first stage of a two-phase research endeavour to learn which elements of AVID program fidelity are predictors of student success. The research team is analyzing the patterns of outcomes and evolution of impacts over time. If the program impacts vary between student cohorts experiencing different levels of AVID program intensity, the research team will seek a second phase to study the relationship between AVID program fidelity and students’ long-term outcomes.
Start-end date: January 2017 - September 2017
Sponsor: AVID Center
Evaluation of the AILE program
Launched during the 2012-13 school year, the Appui intensif en lecture et écriture program (known under its acronym as AILE) is part of the Ontario Ministry of Education goal of improving the literacy achievement of children enrolled in grades one to six. The program aims to offer additional supports to students in grades one to three at risk of a delay in their reading and writing skills conducive to educational achievement. The intervention takes place outside the classroom, in small groups of three students for about 30 minutes, five days per week over a period of 12 weeks. The program AILE is the subject of an implementation study and outcome evaluation.
Start-end date: September 2016 - May 2017
Sponsor: Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario
Life After High School Ontario – Phase III
The purpose of Life After High School is to improve the rates at which high school students transition to post-secondary education by reducing the non-financial and financial barriers students face. The program applies lessons from behavioural economics to provide all Grade 12 students at selected Ontario secondary schools with practical support applying for post-secondary education and financial aid. Students are guided through online tools and video in the process of selecting a post-secondary program of their choice, applying for a place in that program without incurring a fee, and applying for financial aid. As options are considered for the delivery of a streamlined Life After High School program in Ontario in future years, SRDC is running the program in 69 low-transition schools in 2016-17.
Start-end date: September 2016 - June 2017
Sponsor: Ontario Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development
The long-term impacts of offering enhanced career education to Manitoba high school students
This project extends analysis of the impacts of offering Future to Discover (FTD) enhanced career education on Manitoba high school students. While FTD reports to date have covered the 2005 to 2010 period for Manitoba, this extension permits analysis of impacts on later education and labour market participation through to the end of 2014 when the participants were in their mid-twenties. The study examines impacts on education and earnings using tax records that capture outcomes for all 1,044 participants regardless of whether the participants still reside in Manitoba.
Start-end date: February 2016 - October 2017
Sponsor: Manitoba Department of Education and Training
Long-term Education and Labour Market Impacts from the Future to Discover Project
Postsecondary access has been the dominant priority in Ontario’s higher education policy over the past three decades. With this project, SRDC is undertaking data collection and analysis to help answer critical questions about the impacts of postsecondary access policies. The study provides answers to the question "When students at the margin of participating in postsecondary education actually go, what happens to them?". This study uses data on 5,400 students from SRDC’s Future to Discover Project and links these to tax records.
Start-end date: January 2016 - May 2018
Sponsor: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario
Evaluation of the Active Outdoor Play Strategy
'Active outdoor play' is unstructured and of varied intensity, takes place outdoors with natural materials, and involves an element of risk (e.g., due to the height, speed, context, or tools involved). A wide range of sectors and organizations has recently begun to promote active outdoor play as a means of correcting a perceived over-emphasis on safety/risk and injury prevention, as well as promoting healthy child development in the long term.
The aim of the Lawson Foundation’s Outdoor Play Strategy is to better understand how to support Canadian communities to foster children’s opportunities for outdoor play; in other words, how to create environments that enable – rather than hinder – such play. The Strategy is designed to support the development and implementation of a variety of creative ideas across sectors and a range of contexts, including community programs, services, and supports as well as policy and research initiatives. SRDC conducted an evaluation of the Strategy to develop understanding about how and why funded initiatives experience success, and to what degree. The evaluation includes information about both implementation and early impacts of the Outdoor Play Strategy, at three levels: individual projects/grantees; the collective cohort of grantees; and the broader landscape of stakeholders involved in outdoor play. In addition to examining multiple levels of operation and impact, the project takes a developmental evaluation approach – one that is flexible, future-oriented, and focused more on learning and performance improvement than on narrow definitions of merit and accountability.
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Start-end date: November 2015 - April 2019
Sponsor: Lawson Foundation
Demonstrating an enriched Kocihta eMentoring Program Model – A Design/Development Phase
The first phase of a project to tackle one of Canada’s major policy problems: too few Indigenous youth achieving successful transition into the labour market. SRDC is working with Kocihta - a national Indigenous charity founded in 2013 by the Aboriginal Human Resource Council - to develop and test an innovative program model. The model bridges career education to eMentoring with the intent to encourage Indigenous youths to identify and pursue their desired career paths, thereby enhancing their educational investments and improving their labour market outcomes. This phase of the project involves designing an enriched eMentoring program model and developing a comprehensive, detailed implementation and evaluation plan for Phase 2. The main ‘developmental’ activities include: continuing discussions with potential collaborators; developing the intervention/delivery model; finalizing the conceptual evaluation framework; developing the evaluation plan, feasibility and market research for low-cost delivery of eMentoring; and identifying potential funders for a subsequent demonstration project.
Start-end date: April 2015 - May 2016
Sponsor: Anonymous sponsor
Transformation of CEPEO school readiness programs
This project aims to develop a suite of workshops targeting the parents of children aged 0 to 3.8 years old. Workshops will be offered in schools of the Conseil des écoles publiques de l'Est de l'Ontario (CEPEO) starting in the fall of 2015. The intent is to equip parents so that they may better support their child’s school readiness and smooth transition to school. Topics covered will address the following: parent involvement over the short and long term, the construction of a family identity, the notion and importance of attachment to a significant adult, learning through play at home, and resilience in young children. The project is conducted in collaboration with the AFÉSEO (Association francophone à l’éducation des services à l’enfance de l’Ontario).
Start-end date: February 2015 - May 2015
Sponsor: Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario
Long-term impacts of the Life After High School program in BC
This project extends analysis from SRDC’s previous study of the Impact of Lowering Non-financial Barriers on Access to Post-secondary Education (Life After High School) in British Columbia. The intervention tested a sequence of three workshops delivered to high schools’ Grade 12 students intended to encourage the students to apply for post-secondary education and related student financial aid. A total of 50 BC high schools with low rates of students entering post-secondary education are involved. Impacts on students’ enrolment and persistence in post-secondary education, use of student financial aid and program choices are investigated across key subgroups defined by Aboriginal status, gender and high school achievement.
Start-end date: January 2015 - January 2016
Sponsor: Max Bell Foundation
School engagement in middle and secondary schools – Phase IV
The « Engagement scolaire » project is funded by the Conseil des écoles publiques de l'Est de l'Ontario (CEPEO). The objective of the research project is to evaluate the impact of a program offered by the CEPEO on teaching practices, and in turn, of these teaching practices on student outcomes. This phase also focuses on scaling up the initiative in all classes at participating schools. The program offered by the CEPEO aims to help teachers develop effective teaching strategies, including the integration of ICTs, to promote student self-regulation and engagement, as well as learning skills and work habits as defined by the Ontario Ministry of Education.
Start-end date: November 2014 - February 2015
Sponsor: Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario
Evaluation of the Urban and Priority High Schools (UPHS) Initiative
The initiative was first implemented in the 2008-09 school year with 37 urban secondary schools across the 12 school boards receiving funding until 2013-2014. It aimed to enhance the well-being and academic success of students living in high-needs neighbourhoods by way of creating a safe and positive learning school environment. The secondary schools that participated in the UPHS worked with community partners to provide additional supports and opportunities to these students based on a needs assessment and existing services. This evaluation intends to increase our understanding of how additional supports and opportunities influenced at-risk youths’ academic success, to document effective practices in engaging students, parents, and the community, to provide recommendations in regards to the content of a program monitoring information system, and to draw recommendations for improving student outcomes at the system level.
Start-end date: February 2014 - March 2015
Sponsor: Ontario Ministry of Education
School engagement in middle and secondary schools – Phase III
The « Engagement scolaire » project is funded by the Conseil des écoles publiques de l'Est de l'Ontario (CEPEO). The objective of the research project is to evaluate the impact of a program offered by the CEPEO on teaching practices, and in turn, of these teaching practices on student outcomes. This phase also focuses on scaling up the initiative in all classes at participating schools. The program offered by the CEPEO aims to help teachers develop effective teaching strategies, including the integration of ICTs, to promote student self-regulation and engagement, as well as learning skills and work habits as defined by the Ontario Ministry of Education.
Start-end date: September 2013 - June 2014
Sponsor: Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario
Evaluation of the Healthy Eating After School project
Healthy Eating After School (HEAS) is a pilot project funded by the Ministry of Health and implemented by the YMCA of Greater Vancouver. SRDC was contracted to conduct the evaluation. The purpose of the project is to create an environment that supports healthy eating in the after-school care setting. The objectives of the project are to: 1) improve the knowledge and confidence of after-school care staff in healthy eating and in food skills and their confidence to implement these; 2) develop and implement healthy eating policies/guidelines for an after-school care setting; 3) engage parents of children in after school care, in implementing and maintaining children’s healthy eating behaviours; and 4) increase the interest and ability in food skills for children attending after-school care programs.
Start-end date: July 2013 - March 2014
Sponsor: YMCA of Greater Vancouver
Life After High School Ontario – Phase II
A pilot project to develop and test streamlined options for delivery of the Life After High School program in Ontario. The program options provide Grade 12 students at selected Ontario secondary schools with practical support applying for post-secondary education and financial aid. Students are guided through online tools and video in the process of selecting a post-secondary program of their choice, applying for a place in that program, and applying for financial aid. In the initial stage of the project, SRDC provided consulting services and a set of recommended models for test, including consideration of a variant model for Crown Wards. Following the selection of preferred models, the second stage commenced delivery of the options during the 2013-14 school year. Delivery models vary in order to assess the impact of paying the application fee of either the Ontario College Application Service (OCAS) or the Ontario Universities Application Centre (OUAC) and different forms of facilitation. This research project seeks to learn which models are most effective in supporting all Grade 12 students at a school to make applications for post-secondary studies and financial aid, and in increasing enrolment in further education.
Start-end date: April 2013 - March 2016
Sponsor: Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities
Extension of Future to Discover data collection and analysis
The evaluation of a demonstration project involving 4,400 high-school students in New Brunswick that is testing, through a randomized trial, an alternative form of financial support and enhanced career education as ways to increase youth participation in post-secondary education, especially youth from low-income families. This extension permits the study to collect data for the analysis of outcomes through to the completion of post-secondary education and early labour market experience.
Start-end date: March 2013 - December 2017
Sponsor: New Brunswick Education and Early Childhood Development
School engagement in middle and secondary schools – Phase II
Pilot project for testing educational practices that encourage school engagement among middle and secondary school students. This second phase of the study focuses primarily on creating the measures required for evaluating implementation of the educational practices tested during Phase I of the project. The tools were developed in close collaboration with stakeholders from four schools in the Ottawa region, in particular school board and teaching staff members, as well as students. The third phase of the project aims to evaluate the effect of educational practices on student school engagement. To achieve this, student engagement is examined based on the degree of implementation of educational practices.
Start-end date: October 2012 - April 2013
Sponsor: Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario
School Engagement in Middle School
A pilot project aiming to develop, apply, and test teaching strategies that enhance school engagement in middle school students. The existing strategies are identified based on document and literature reviews. In addition, new strategies are developed using a motivational framework extensively applied to the school setting. The strategies are then tested in two classrooms in a school located in the Ottawa area.
Start-end date: September 2011 - January 2012
Sponsor: Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario
Life After High School in Ontario
A pilot project to test an innovative program called Life After High School in Ontario. Starting in October 2011, the program provides Grade 12 students at selected Ontario secondary schools with practical support applying for post-secondary education and financial aid. In three on-line facilitated workshops at 43 schools, students are guided through the process of selecting a post-secondary program of their choice, applying for a place in that program, and applying for financial aid. The application fee of either the Ontario College Application Service (OCAS) or the Ontario Universities Application Centre (OUAC) is covered by the program. This research project seeks to learn whether supporting all Grade 12 students at a school in making real applications for post-secondary studies and financial aid increases enrolment in further education.
Start-end date: May 2011 - March 2015
Sponsor: Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities
Welcome to Kindergarten Program National Evaluation, Phase II
The Welcome to Kindergarten Program aims to prepare children and families for the important transition to school. The first phase of the current Welcome to Kindergarten Program National Evaluation began in 2009, which resulted in an evaluation framework and plan, cost proposal, and literature and policy review. SRDC conducted the Phase II of the Welcome to Kindergarten Program National Evaluation, to compare 20 high implementation fidelity schools across Canada that have two years of experience participating in the program against 20 non-program schools to determine program effects. This pan-Canadian evaluation is being guided by Dr. Fraser Mustard.
Start-end date: March 2011 - July 2012
Sponsor: The Learning Partnership
Healthy After School Pilot Project
The aim of this project is to develop a program around physical activity and healthy eating in after-school care. The program will provide after-school care providers with a range of supports and resources to encourage and facilitate children to be more active and to choose healthy foods. After-school care sites participating in the project will be trained and given a resource bin that will include some equipment and tools to help staff incorporate the program into their activities. Ongoing training and support will also be provided to staff and they can choose what to use from these resource bins. Lines of evidence: consultations, interviews, observations, surveys, and measurements of physical activity.
Start-end date: February 2011 - October 2012
Sponsor: Public Health Agency of Canada
Sip Smart! Follow-up
To make applications to selected Foundations and other funding sources for funding to conduct a longitudinal study of students involved with the Sip Smart! program.
Start-end date: January 2011 - March 2011
Sponsor: BC Pediatric Society
Multisite evaluation of the Francophone Youth Inclusion Program (YIP)
A multisite evaluation of a youth crime prevention program entitled Youth Inclusion Program (YIP). The Francophone YIP seeks to reduce the number of arrests, truancy, and school expulsions for a group of high-risk youths within the same community. To achieve its objectives, the program offers youths, by way of an individualized intervention plan, a combination of sports, education, training, and interventions on subjects such as health and drugs. The evaluation of the Francophone YIP is spread over five years and was conducted in Montreal (Quebec) and in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield (Quebec). SRDC conducted a process evaluation, an impact evaluation, a costs analysis and a relevancy evaluation.
Start-end date: November 2010 - December 2016
Sponsor: Public Safety Canada
Petits pas à trois – Monitoring System
To provide advice and technical assistance with the development of a program monitoring system with the objectives of ensuring that the program delivered is of high quality and that the training needs of early childhood educators are identified and addressed in a timely fashion.
Start-end date: October 2010 - July 2011
Sponsor: Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est de l’Ontario
Impact of Lowering Non-financial Barriers on Access to Post-secondary Education (Life After High School)
The project aims to develop, implement, and test an intervention to find new ways to lower non-financial barriers on access to post-secondary education. The intervention targets British Columbia high schools with low rates of students entering post-secondary education. A sequence of three workshops delivered to the schools’ Grade 12 students have the intent of encouraging the students to apply for post-secondary education and related student financial aid.
Start-end date: March 2010 - March 2013
Sponsor: Human Resources and Skills Development Canada + Carthy Foundation
Sip Smart! Education Module
A process evaluation of a short-term early prevention school-based education program to inform students in grades 4, 5, and 6 about the risks of sugar-sweetened beverages. The resources were delivered by classroom teachers.
Start-end date: January 2010 - July 2010
Sponsor: BC Pediatric Society
Petits pas à trois
Impact and outcome evaluation of a new preschool program targeting minority Francophone preschoolers and their families.
Start-end date: July 2009 - June 2010
Sponsor: Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est de l’Ontario
Readiness to Learn in Minority Francophone Communities
This large-scale demonstration project was part of the Government of Canada’s 2003–2008 Action Plan for Official Languages and was continued under the 2008–2013 Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality. The tested preschool program combined a childcare component developed specifically to meet the needs of Francophone children in minority settings with a family literacy component targeting the parents of these children. The program aimed to develop children’s language skills, knowledge and use of French, knowledge of and engagement in Francophone culture, as well as to foster their school readiness and overall development. The project involved some 400 children living in six minority Francophone communities in New Brunswick, Ontario, and Alberta. A mixed-methods approach was used to conduct an implementation study and an impact evaluation. Project findings will serve to inform decision-makers, service providers, and program developers on the delivery, effectiveness, and efficiency of a program whose aims are ensuring children master the language of instruction in addition to the preservation and strengthening of minority Francophone communities’ vitality.
Start-end date: March 2006 - May 2013
Sponsor: Human Resources and Skills Development Canada
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Research Support for Dissemination: Early Analyses of Future to Discover Baseline Data
In advance of planned publication, the Future to Discover evaluation team undertook early analysis of Future to Discover’s two recruited cohorts from New Brunswick and one cohort from Manitoba, prepared tables for three conferences and presented at the conferences.
Start-end date: December 2005 - April 2006
Sponsor: Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation
Future to Discover Pilot Project (FTD)
The evaluation of a demonstration project involving 5,400 high-school students in New Brunswick and Manitoba that is testing, through a randomized trial, an alternative form of financial support and enhanced career education as ways to increase youth participation in post-secondary education, especially youth from low-income families. To date, SRDC has published the Future to Discover Pilot Project: Early Implementation Report (2007), Future to Discover: Interim Impacts Report (2009), Future to Discover: Post-secondary Impacts Report (2012), Future to Discover: Fourth Year Post-secondary Impacts Report (2014), Future to Discover: Fifth Year Post-secondary Impacts Report (2016), Future to Discover: Sixth Year Post-secondary Impacts Report (2016), and Future to Discover: Seventh Year Post-secondary Impacts Report (2019).
Start-end date: August 2003 - December 2013
Sponsor: Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation
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