ABSTRACT
Much of the 1990s was dedicated to understanding the impact of youth programs on a host of developmental outcomes (Dryfoos, 1999; Kahne et al., 2001; Posner & Vandell, 1994; Vandell & Ramanan, 1991). Most salient among these findings was that staff quality was the most consistent factor contributing to program effectiveness (Anderson-Butcher, Cash, Saltzburg, Midle, & Pace, 2004; Little, Wimer, & Weiss, 2008; McLaughlin, Irby, & Langman, 1994; Metz, Bandy, & Burkhauser, 2009; Noam & Fiore, 2004; Phelan, 2005). Every framework of program quality that has since emerged has addressed the need for well-trained and qualified staff (see Palmer, Anderson, & Sabatelli, 2009 for a review). How staff quality is defined, how one goes about developing it, and how it links to developmental outcomes for clients has been the subject of much discussion in professional education across allied health and human service fields (e.g., see Guskey, 1995, for a similar discussion in education; Benner, Sutphen, Leonard, & Day, 2010), for nursing; and Freedberg, 2009, for social work).
