Information Technology

The Center for Family Life: Analyzing Participant Data

The Center for Family Life (CFL) is a neighborhood-based social-service center offering a broad range of services to youth and families in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. In August 2000, CFL engaged Metis Associates to assist in establishing a management reporting function and permanent evaluation capability for the center's school-based afterschool enrichment programs. With permission from New York City Department of Education school district superintendents, Metis made use of the data in its school-district data repository to carry out research on the effectiveness of the center's afterschool programs. For six years, Metis carried out comparative analyses of participant academic performance, attendance, and year-over-year academic progress in comparison with a control group of students who did not participate in the afterschool programs.  To perform the analyses, Metis merged data from the center's client-tracking system with data from Metis's data repository. Each year, a final report was presented to CFL staff for feedback and to specify further analyses, and Metis has provided support to incorporate its findings into CFL's annual progress report.  One consistent result from Metis's analyses is that students participating CFL programs attend school more than their non-CFL counterparts.