American Camp Association
The Camp Program Quality Assessment (Camp PQA) was drafted in a partnership between the American Camp Association (ACA) and the Weikart Center. The assessment tool was created in the winter and spring of 2009 and pilot tested that summer. Analysis and creation of a final tool are currently underway.
The Camp PQA is based on the Youth Program Quality Assessment (Youth PQA), which was scientifically validated in 2004. The Camp PQA also benefits from 5 years of experience using the Youth PQA in youth program networks across the United States. The Youth PQA dataset used to make psychometric-based decisions in the development of the Camp PQA contains nearly 1000 observations.
Like the Youth PQA, the Camp PQA is designed to support a robust assessment process that can be used under a range of conditions and for a range of purposes:
- The Camp PQA can be used in a wide variety of day and residential camp settings serving children 10 years old or older
- The Camp PQA has valid application as (1) a self-assessment by internal staff teams, (2) a monitoring and feedback tool for supervisory staff, and (3) a quality metric for external evaluation and research
- The Camp PQA can be purchased and used by untrained staff (although training is recommended for first time users)
- The Camp PQA and supporting services are available at low cost.
