| How Head Start Has Responded to the Changing Needs
of Children and Families in Poverty
"Head Start is entering an historic period of reexamination,
improvement in quality, and expansion of services. The size of
the program, its comprehensive services, and diversity of the
population it serves, and the fact that it is federally funded
suggest a role for Head Start as a national laboratory for best
practices in early childhood and family support services in low-income
communities. Because Head Start needs to expand and renew itself
in order to assume its role as a state-of-the-art 'technology,'
there is a concomitant and compelling need for a new, expanded,
and formal role for Head Start research."
Creating a 21st Century Head Start,
Advisory Committee on Head Start Quality and Expansion, 1993
The broad categories of the current Head Start research
and evaluation efforts are summarized below, followed by a more
detailed description of individual studies or activities contained
within each area.
Quality: Conduct New Head Start Research Focusing
on Quality and Other Policy Issues
Head Start has made dramatic progress toward developing
an outcome-oriented accountability system, the Program Performance
Measures Initiative, which can be used, on an ongoing basis, to
determine the quality and effectiveness of Head Start programs nationally.
Descriptive Study of the Head Start Health Component
This study was designed to provide a "national snapshot"
of how local Head Start programs meet the medical, dental, nutritional,
and mental health needs of the children and families they serve.
Data were collected in 1994 on a national probability sample of
1,200 children and families in 81 centers across 40 Head Start programs
to provide information on program procedures, community health risks,
and health resources available to participating families. The final
report is available at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hs/descriptive_stdy/index.html.
Head Start Quality Research Center (QRC) Consortium
The objective of the Consortium is to create an ongoing
partnership among ACYF, Head Start grantees, and the academic research
community to enhance quality program practices and program outcomes.
A cooperative agreement in September 1995 established four Quality
Research Centers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill,
High/Scope Educational Research Foundation in Ypsilanti, MI, Education
Development Center, Inc. in Newton, MA, and Georgia State University
in Atlanta. More information is available at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hs/qrc_one/index.html.
Head Start Performance Measure Center (PMC)
As part of the Head Start Quality Research Center
Consortium, the PMC is responsible for the collection, analysis,
reporting, and dissemination of data on Head Start Performance Measures.
In the spring of 1997, the PMC took part in the pilot test of the
first nationwide data collection-assessing Head Start children and
following them up in kindergarten, and assessing parents' experiences
and the quality of Head Start classrooms, as part of the Family
and Child Experiences Survey (FACES). (See below.)
Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey
(FACES)
FACES is designed to collect longitudinal data on
a nationally representative sample of 3,200 families with children
enrolled in 40 Head Start programs, starting in Fall 1997. Its purposes
are to provide descriptions of the characteristics, experiences,
and outcomes for children and families served by Head Start and
to observe the relationships among family and program characteristics
and outcomes. The Head Start Performance Measures Second Progress
Report, and more recent longitudinal findings of the study are available
at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hs/faces/index.html.
Longitudinal: Conduct Longitudinal Research on
Children and Families Served in Head Start Programs
Conduct longitudinal studies that seek to identify
early and intermediate outcomes of a Head Start experience and that
explore the interacting influences of preschool, family, and later
schooling in mediating the long-term effects of child and family
participation in Head Start. Build our partnership with ongoing
longitudinal research, which will provide valuable information about
the characteristics and needs of the Head Start population, both
parents and children.
Evaluation of the Head Start/Public School Early
Childhood Transition Demonstration
The Transition Demonstration was designed to assist
low-income students grades kindergarten through three and their
families in obtaining supportive services including health, immunization,
mental health, nutrition, parenting education, literacy, and social
services, as well as supporting the active involvement of parents
in the education of their children. The 31 demonstration grantees
participated in a national evaluation under experimental design
conditions to determine the effects of the demonstration on children,
families, the Head Start program, the public school system, and
the community. Data were collected annually from the time the children
entered kindergarten until they completed third grade, using interviews
and standard assessments with children, their parents, teachers,
and principals. The report is available at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hs/ch_trans/index.html.
NICHD Study of Early Child Care: Early Child Care
and Head Start Children
ACYF and the National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development are collaborating on a low-income substudy of
this prospective, longitudinal natural history study of 1,200 children
from 10 sites across the U.S. ACYF's participation is designed to
explore the concurrent, long-term, and cumulative influences of
variations in early child care experiences on the cognitive, linguistic,
social, emotional, and physical development of young children who
grow up in poverty. A summary of the study and recent reports are
available at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/od/secc/index.html
Infants and Toddlers: Conduct Intensive Evaluation
of Services for Infants and Toddlers
Provide opportunities for formative local evaluation,
a national impact study, and innovative research partnerships to
explore the issues of service delivery to children from birth to
three and pregnant women.
Evaluation of the Comprehensive Child Development
Programs (CCDP)
The purpose of this evaluation was to assess the effectiveness
of CCDP by examining the impact of each program model on the cognitive,
socioemotional, and physical development of a participating and
control group of children (approximately 4,100) through the administration
of standardized assessment batteries (at 24, 36, 48 and 60 months)
and a series of annual interviews with the parents of the children
in the study, including the use of observational instruments to
measure the home environment and parent-child interactions. The
final impact evaluation and process study reports have been completed
and are available electronically via the Internet at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hs/comp_develop/reports/ccdp_exsum_compreh/ccprexsm.html.
Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project
In order to evaluate the new Early Head Start program,
serving children from birth through age three and pregnant women,
this project has launched a study of approximately 3,000 families
living in 17 diverse communities across the U.S. The project has
four central purposes: (1) creating a system for continuous program
improvement, (2) conducting a rigorous cross-site impact study,
(3) encouraging a new generation of research for understanding the
role of program and contextual variations, and (4) creating the
foundation for a series of longitudinal research studies. A descriptive
report on program implementation will be available in 1999, with
the first impact results due in 2001. The National Institute on
Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the Assistant Secretary
for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), and the Ford Foundation are
collaborating on a related study of low-income fathers of infants
and toddlers. For more information see http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/ehs/ehs_resrch/index.html.
Innovative Program Strategies: Conduct Studies
of Head Start's Other Emerging Innovative Program Strategies
Develop a long-term approach to research that draws
upon emerging themes and developments in the broader early childhood
field. In developing innovative demonstration programs, the demonstration
and the evaluation should be planned simultaneously and interactively.
Evaluation of the Head Start Family Child Care
Demonstration
This evaluation assessed the effectiveness of the
18 Head Start Family Child Care Homes (HSFCC) demonstration projects
funded by ACYF in FY 1992 to serve families who were working, in
school, or involved in training activities. The evaluation demonstrated
that Head Start services provided through FCC homes compare favorably
to services provided through centers, particularly in terms of their
quality and effectiveness in promoting outcomes for children, parents,
and families. Findings from the evaluation have been incorporated
into plans for making FCC a regular Head Start program option. For
more information see http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hs/eval_hs_fam/index.html.
Evaluation of the Family Service Center Demonstration
The purpose of this national evaluation was to utilize
Wave III demonstration projects to evaluate the effectiveness of
the Head Start Family Service Center Demonstration Projects in their
efforts to ameliorate the interrelated problems of illiteracy, substance
abuse, and unemployment which limit the capacity of many Head Start
families to achieve self-sufficiency. Recently, local evaluation
reports on Waves I-III were reviewed and analyzed for information
to supplement the results of the national evaluation.
Special Subpopulations: Conduct Studies of Special
Subpopulations Separately or Embedded in Larger Studies
Special studies should target Head Start subpopulations
that may not be included in significant numbers in other research
and evaluation studies (e.g., Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians,
migrant farmworker families, children with disabilities, and geographically
and socially isolated families).
Descriptive Study of Bilingual/Multicultural Head
Start Programs
This study was designed to: (1) assess the number,
geographic distribution, and sociodemographic characteristics of
the Head Start-eligible population using U.S. Census data; (2) assess
the number, geographic distribution, and sociodemographic characteristics
of the children and families from bilingual and multicultural backgrounds
currently being served by Head Start; and (3) identify the range
of bilingual and multicultural services currently provided by Head
Start programs.
Descriptive Study of the Characteristics of Families
Served by the Migrant Head Start Program
The purpose of this study was to: (1) characterize
the currently served Migrant Head Start (MHS) client population,
(2) provide an overall description of the MHS service delivery system
and operational issues affecting both the nationwide service delivery
system and local centers, and (3) estimate the universe of need
for MHS services, as well as the proportion of MHS-eligible families
currently served.
Research Capacity: Develop and Enhance Capacity
for Research on Head Start in Partnership with the Larger Child
Development Community
Take a visible leadership role in stimulating a comprehensive
and coordinated set of research activities on the diverse populations
served by Head Start in the child development community, using the
model of reflective research partnerships of researchers, staff,
families, and communities. Take responsibility for dissemination
of critical research findings and best practices (in both program
and research methodology) back to practitioners and other relevant
consumers of such information.
National Academy of Sciences Roundtable on Head
Start Research
The Board on Children and Families, within the National
Academy of Sciences (NAS) was funded by ACYF to convene a roundtable
of national experts, both researchers and practitioners, to review
relevant early childhood research and provide input to the agency's
ongoing effort to develop a long-term, revitalized Head Start research
agenda. This two-year effort resulted in the publication of an NAS
report entitled Beyond the Blueprint: Directions for Research on
Head Start's Families. The report is available at http://ericps.ed.uiuc.edu/nccic/research/nrc_bynd/nrc_bynd.html.
Head Start's National Research Conferences
The fifth Head Start National Research Conference
will be held in Washington, DC, on June 28-July 1, 2000. This bi-annual
research conference regularly brings together both practitioners
and leading child development researchers, including but not limited
to researchers focusing on studying Head Start children, families,
staff and programs. The next conference theme is "Developmental
and Contextual Transitions of Children and Families: Implications
for Research, Policy, and Practice." Additional information is available
at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hsrc/index.html.
Head Start/University Partnerships and Head Start
Research Scholars Program
The purpose of this category of discretionary funding
is to support research conducted by universities on behalf of faculty
or doctoral-level graduate students who form partnerships with Head
Start or Early Head Start programs for the purposes of contributing
new knowledge or testing research applications which will enhance
the optimal development of young low-income children or improve
services for these children and their families. Three areas are
targeted as priorities for fiscal year 1999: (1) infant and toddler
development in the cultural context; (2) theory-driven applications
for the prevention, identification , and/or treatment of children's
mental health disorders; and (3) field-initiated research focusing
on child development (including health and mental health) or public
policy issues with major implications for low-income children; cross-disciplinary
research is invited. Additional information is available on the
Internet at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hs/univ_partner/index.html.
Department of Education Early Childhood Longitudinal
Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K)-Head Start Substudy
The purpose of this Interagency Agreement is to join
with the Department of Education in their study of children's early
school experience. This is a longitudinal study of approximately
23,000 children from 1,000 schools nationwide, of which an estimated
3,000 will be former Head Start children. Starting in Fall 1998,
the study will assess children as they enter kindergarten and continue
through the fifth grade. Linkages are also being made with the Head
Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES). For further information,
see http://www.nces.ed.gov/ecls/kindergarten/studybrief.asp.
Department of Education Early Childhood Longitudinal
Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B)-Head Start Substudy
The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort
2000 (ECLS-B) will provide detailed information on children's development,
health, early care, and education on a nationally representative
sample of 12,000 children born in 2000 who will be followed longitudinally
from birth through the end of first grade. ACYF currently is exploring
the following: (1) development of questionnaires on parental decision-making
related to selection of child care and/or early intervention programs;
(2) direct observation of the quality of childcare and early education
programs; and (3) supplementing already planned assessments in child
development, family functioning, care provider competence, and community
support, including direct observations of parent/caregiver-child
interactions. For further information, see http://www.nces.ed.gov/ecls/Birth/studybrief.asp.
Head Start/Early Childhood Mental Health Initiative
with NIMH
Through an ongoing collaborative agreement with the
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), ACYF seeks to generate
new knowledge to improve the capacity of Head Start and related
early childhood programs to deliver high quality, comprehensive,
developmentally appropriate prevention and intervention services
to support the mental health of low income young children, their
families, and program staff. ACYF and NIMH awarded five research
grants in September of 1997 as the core component of this collaborative
mental health research initiative, including: the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of New Mexico, University
of Oregon, Vanderbilt University, and Columbia University. The HSMHRC
currently is conducting research in multiple Head Start communities
that include a diversity of populations (Caucasian, African American,
Hispanic American, and Native American) and settings (rural and
urban). Within these diverse Head Start communities, the HSMHRC
aims to: (1) identify current mental health related services; (2)
determine prevalence, type, and severity of emotional, behavioral,
and language problems; and (3) assess the impact of home-based,
classroom-based, and/or skills training interventions on emotional,
behavioral , and language problems. For further information, see
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hs/mental_hlth/index.html.
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