Impact

How do we know we’ve accomplished what we’ve set out to do? We’re proud of the stats that illustrate our success—like our 100% high school graduation rate and our 91% college enrollment rate. But it’s the intangible qualities our students develop that set us apart—qualities like discipline, resourcefulness, integrity, and confidence.

Living Indicators

When our alumni come back with amazing stories to share; when a student’s after-practice comment reveals a lesson well-learned; when our kids stick around our facility for as long as possible, eagerly volunteering for extra events and activities, we know we’re hitting our mark.

Read more about our amazing students and the things they’ve accomplished.

In addition, we’re committed to critically examining the impact and implications of our programs and policies through measurement and evaluation.

Stats & Studies

At Starfinder, we regularly evaluate the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) scores, attendance information, academic progress, and graduation rates to measure our students’ progress. We also assess the students’ development of high-impact attributes such as self-awareness, positive identity, situational awareness, “Plan B” thinking, social confidence, discipline, future focus, and pro-social connections in evaluating our program’s effectiveness.

We are particularly proud of the following outcomes:

  • 95-100% of our regularly attending seniors graduated from high school every year since 2008. (By contrast, Philadelphia’s public high school graduation rate is only 64%.)
  • 91% of our seniors have continued on to higher education. (Less than half of Philadelphia’s public high school graduates enroll in college. That means that less than one-third of all high school students enroll in college.)
  • 84% of our returning participants hold leadership positions in their schools and communities.

Below you’ll find our most recent quantitative and qualitative evaluations:

Starfinder Qualitative Evaluation Results Report (Spring 2017) by Lauren Kinderknecht, Director of Monitoring & Evaluation, Up2Us Sports

A third party evaluation of the Senior Leaders program based on focus group discussions with participants.

Starfinder Foundation Evaluation Report (June 2015) by Carolina Fojo, MSW and Zach Stone of The Red Kite Project

A third party evaluation of the Senior Leaders Program based on focus group discussions with participants that describes impact across the three pillars: health and fitness, academic support, and leadership development.


Soccer Girls Rule Year Three Evaluation Report (July 2013) by Elizabeth McSpiritt, MD, MPH

A report on the outcomes of the third year of Starfinder’s intervention with pre-adolescent girls at two Philadelphia elementary schools.


SIRC Year 3 Report (June 2013) by Aubrey Kent, PhD

An in-depth analysis of longitudinal outcomes data measuring Starfinder’s impact on eight dimensions of participant behavior and attitude: commitment, involvement, satisfaction, and the 5C’s of Positive Youth Development (caring, confidence, connectedness, competence, and character).

Advantage Rule: The Assimilation Experiences of Starfinder Immigrant Youth (August 2012) by Karen Okigbo

A monograph that describes how Starfinder impacts the culturally diverse youth in the Senior Leaders Program.

Senior Leader Interns Summer Reflections (August 2012)

The written reflections of 18 Senior Leaders who partic

ipated as summer interns during the Starfinder summer program.

Awards & Recognition