The new Youth and Child Outcomes Survey Report goes live for the entire BBBS network on March 1, 2021. This report is significantly different from the YOS/COS Infographic and YOS/COS Infographic by Agency reports it replaces.

Here is a summary of some of the changes you will see in the new report.

• The YOS/COS Infographic and the YOS/COS Infographic by Agency reports have been combined into a single new report that contains outcomes data for all BBBS agencies. Users can narrow report results to agency specific data by using easily changed report filters.
• Fifteen new outcome measures have been added to the report. 
• As a result of the large increase in reported measures, the length of the report has increased from a single page to five pages (including a filters page).
• Release of the new Youth and Child Outcomes Survey Report will be accompanied by the release of a second new report that will allow agency specific raw data to be easily downloaded for analysis in MS Excel and similar software programs.
• The current YOS/COS Infographic reports follow-up data for Littles by averaging the results of specific measures across all of the follow-up surveys each individual Little has taken within the report timeframe. The new Youth and Child Outcomes Survey Report measures follow-up data by reporting only the most recent score for each Little’s follow-up measure. This change was made to bring reporting more in line with common statistical methods.
• On the current YOS/COS Infographic, the measures Attitudes Towards Risky Behavior, Police and Juvenile Justice Contact, and School Attendance are scored such that higher scores equate to preferred outcomes. The scoring scales for these measures have been reversed on the new Youth and Child Outcomes Survey Report such that lower scores are now preferred. These changes were made to bring scoring more in line with intuitive interpretations of preferred outcomes (for example, fewer encounters with police and the juvenile justice system are intuitively preferred to a higher number of such encounters).

• Review of the current YOS/COS Infographic uncovered certain questions within the measures Attitudes Towards Risky Behavior, Educational Expectations, Social Acceptance, and Very Important Adult that were being scored in ways inconsistent with the scoring of other questions in the measures and published survey documentation. These inconsistencies have been corrected on the new Youth and Child Outcomes Survey Report.
• The Very Important Adult measure is only scored for follow-up surveys on the new Youth and Child Outcomes Survey Report. This change was made to bring reporting into line with the questions asked in the August 2020 versions of the YOS and COS.
• The new Youth and Child Outcomes Survey Report designates baseline measures as the first instance in which a Little completed a measure, regardless of specified survey type (baseline or follow-up) and the number of baseline surveys completed. If desired, users can force the new report to only pull baseline data from surveys with the specified type of “baseline” by setting appropriate report filters.
• Surveys for Littles who are participating in simultaneous matches of differing types during a specified survey year will now be included in the scoring of both match types for an agency.
• Review of the current YOS/COS Infographic revealed certain Reasons for Not Completing surveys were not appropriately triggering the survey to be excluded from scoring. All surveys with a designated Reason for Not Completing in Matchforce will be excluded from scoring on the new Youth and Child Outcomes Survey Report.
• Users can now select to see outcomes reported for all matches, just community-based matches, or just site-based matches.
• The placement of parentheses in the calculation used to determine Reliable Change has been changed to bring this calculation in line with research best practices.
• Site based plus matches are now included in the scoring of community-based matches instead of in the scoring of site-based matches. This change corresponds to Program Standards and match support procedures associated with site based plus matches.

As can be seen from the summary above, the new Youth and Child Outcomes Survey Report is a significant departure from the YOS/COS Infographic and YOS/COS Infographic by Agency reports it replaces. While the new report dramatically increases outcome reporting capabilities, several of the changes made in association with the report’s development also have the potential to alter how specific outcomes are scored at the agency-level. Moreover, the myriad of interactions possible among these changes makes it exceptionally difficult to predict exactly how any specific BBBS agency’s scores will change. This being said, all BBBS agencies are encouraged to compare their outcomes scores on the new Youth and Child Outcomes Survey Report to those on the current YOS/COS Infographic and YOS/COS Infographic by Agency reports and then attend a support office hour session in order to get specific questions about scoring changes addressed. Dates, times, and links to the office hour sessions will be published on the project website and on the Matchforce homepage before the new report goes live on March 1st.

If you have any questions about what to expect when the new outcomes report goes live, or anything else related to the YOS/COS Infographic Replacement Project, please email the project team by clicking here. We will get back to you as soon as possible.