Descriptive Summary for SAYO-T

PASA Summer 2015

The SAYO-T is a survey given to PASA’s summer educators on each youth in their program in the first and last week of summer. The survey measures youth progress on SEL and 21st Century Skills. The SAYO-T looks at the impact of the summer program on youth and serves as a validated assessment for youth Badges which PASA uses to communicate the importance of these skills to its youth participants. Neither the SAYO-T nor the Badge initiative are funded through PPSD dollars.

Table 1 presents average mean pre- and post-test SAYO-T ratings (for badge skills) for those youth with both pre- and post-test data available (n=211). Pre-test data were available for 311 youth and post-test data were available for 212[1] youth.

Table 1. Mean Pre- and Post-test SAYO-T Ratings for 2015 Summer Scholars Youth(n=211)
Subscales / Pre-test Mean / Post-test Mean
Engagement in Learning / 3.30 / 3.75
Problem-Solving / 3.07 / 3.68
Communication Skills / 3.14 / 3.73
Relations with Peers / 3.61 / 4.17
Perseverance / 3.26 / 3.69
Scale: 1 = Never; 2=Rarely; 3=Sometimes; 4=Usually; 5=Always

Table 2shows the number and percentage of youth who scored 4.0 or higher for each of the five skills. Percentages are based on the total number of youth for whom post-test data were available (n=312). Table 3 presents similar data relative to the growth of at least 1.0 from pre-test to post-test.

Table 2. Number and Percentage of Youth Scoring 4.0 or Higherfor Each Skill
Subscales / N(%)
Engagement in Learning / 108 (34.6)
Problem-Solving / 103 (33.0)
Communication Skills / 99 (31.7)
Relations with Peers / 157 (50.3)
Perseverance / 106 (34.0)
Note: Subscale scores are only calculated when complete data are available; % calculated based on number of youth with available post-test data (n=312)

SAYO-T and Badges

PASA did an internal pilot but did not publically award badges during the 2015 Summer session. InSummer 2016 Badges will be awarded to youth in each of these five skills based on their attendance and SAYO-T ratings. Badges will be awarded to any program participant who attends 80% of days and who receives a score of 3.0 or above on the corresponding SAYO-T subscale. Participants who meet the attendance threshold will be eligible to earn a badge for each skill.

[1] The total number of youth for whom data is available is lower than the total number of participants in 2015 AfterZone Summer STEM Camp. Five (5) of the 18 teams participated in an NSF-funded research study that required different assessment measures. This will not be the case for 2016’s AfterZone Summer STEM Camp; all participants will have SAYO-Ts completed and be eligible for badges.