Abstract
Youth are increasingly engaging in civic action to address social injustices. Many adult educators are also looking for instructional resources that support youth voice as a way to promote adolescent civic development and community change. Alas, assessment tools to support youth voice and policy argumentation are lacking. Existing tools overemphasize public speaking skills and rely on dated artifacts such as cardboard trifold posters. In this article we introduce the Measure of Youth Policy Arguments (MYPA), a tool designed to aid in the development and assessment of high-quality youth policy presentations. We also describe how to use the MYPA in formative and summative contexts. Additionally, we provide initial evidence for the validity and reliability of the MYPA. Furthermore, we argue that MYPA has applications in preparing youth for policy presentation and in assessing learning outcomes associated with youth voice projects.
Highlights
We were motivated to develop the Measure of Youth Policy Arguments (MYPA) in part from our review of youth policy presentations, where we found that youth presentations did not address the root causes of their focal problem, employed questionable or misaligned research methods, proposed incomplete or off-base policy solutions, and did not take the opportunity to enlist the help of their audience in enacting social change
Percentage agreement was used as a measure of interrater reliability (IRR), as it provided a method to assess by item, construct, and the MYPA overall
The preliminary evidence from this study indicates that the MYPA is appropriate for assessing the quality of youth policy arguments, additional research is required to further establish validity
Summary
Based in part on this comment, we found ourselves asking how the youth could have been better prepared or provided with critical feedback that would aid them in addressing the complicated topics they explored. Though this May event provided youth a space to share their concerns, we felt that youth required additional support in constructing and delivering policy arguments and an authentic stage where they could exercise their voice. Youth deserve real support in crafting policy arguments, including constructive, tangible assessment and feedback after presenting. Our primary goal in developing the MYPA was for its formative potential, so youth would have a tool to aid them in crafting powerful civic presentations. The summative potential of MYPA has opened opportunities for partnerships with in-school and out-of-school organizations, leading to the MYPA being used as both a formative and summative tool in these organizations
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