Research and Evaluation

The SHAKTI Warriors' Program was preliminarily assessed during the FY12 school year as a pilot program for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Beyond the Bell After
School Program (BTB), the afterschool programming team for LAUSD, led the implementation during this pilot year. Research Support Services (RSS), a 3rd party evaluator for the Los Angeles UnifiedSchool District, led by Project Director, Steve Frankel, evaluated five schools for the initial multisite case study, which consisted of observations conducted by RSS’ team of evaluators. The instruments used were aligned to the standards-based indicators set by California’s: Before and After School Programs (BASPs). Students were predominantly observed interacting with the SHAKTI Warriors' program in classroom settings. However, the study also included interviews with the teachers / coaches and school administrators affiliated with the FY12 SHAKTI Warriors pilot. The final, culminating activity was also observed. This final event took place at an external location, and included the top six ‘Warriors’ from each of the five schools, as well as their teachers, coaches and administrators from the SHAKTI Warriors' program. The results from the FY12 pilot were used to drive the changes made to the SHAKTI Warriors' program in preparation for the FY13 implementation and additional evaluation.

Click HERE for the LAUSD’s FY13 Evaluation Abstract:

Data-driven enhancements:

Data-driven enhancements were made to every component of the SHAKTI Warriors program
as a result of the FY12 evaluation, and were incorporated into the FY13 implementation, which
increased to 18 elementary schools within the LAUSD, and included more than 420 participating
students. An overview of some of these data-driven enhancements follows.

   A professional development pre-service workshop was created and delivered on-site to all
   participating coaches, teachers and Site Coordinators from the Youth Development Project –
   the Beyond the Bell (BTB) teams responsible for leading the after-school programs within
   the LAUSD.

  Three webinars, implemented on a formative basis and serving as ‘in-services’, were also
  created and delivered to all participating members throughout the program's 16-week
  implementation. These webinars functioned as 'in-services' and supported the 'community'
  theme inherent in the SHAKTI Warriors' program. These webinars support the teacher teams
  by answering programming, curriculum, and time-management questions, teams share best
  practices, and real-time changes to the SHAKTI Warriors technological components are
  disseminated.

  An holistically-aligned and S.A.F.E. evidence-based integration of all SHAKTI Warriors
  components:   Lesson plans, Online Academy, Online KidsHealth articles and questions,
  the Board Game, and   Comic Books, to the Common Core Curriculum Standards (CCCS),
  CASEL-supported, Illinois Social   and Emotional Learning (SEL) Standards, the National Health
  Education Standards (NHES), and   state-specific Science Standards.