Measuring Co-Regulation: A Draft Tool for Observing Educators in Youth-Serving Programs

The SARHM team found that:

• Observers demonstrated moderate to substantial levels of agreement in their ratings. For some items where there was less agreement, a revised tool should include clearer guidance on the time it took the educator to get a class back on track after disruptions.
• Observers’ reports and educators’ self-reports were weakly correlated. Additional training may be beneficial, though differences between educators’ and observers’ reports may also reflect the fact that educators did not always report on the same workshops that were observed.
• The observation tool made observers more aware of the use of co-regulation in their programs. They found the initial two-day training helpful, but wanted more opportunities to practice using the tool.
• Observers reported that some of the tool’s procedures were challenging, particularly related to the timing of different sections and the number of behaviors they had to track. A revised tool could be simplified and improved by reducing the number of behaviors to rate or the amount of time spent observing educators.
• Observers had concerns about the cultural relevance of some items, such as recording how frequently educators provided direct and individualized praise to youth. A revised tool could allow communities or programs to make culturally-appropriate adaptations to the measure.

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