The Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) Study and Community Engagement

• In Event: New Opportunities to Study the Understudied: Secondary Analyses with Two Federal Datasets

Abstract

The presentation highlighting the MSHS Study data will begin with a review of unique details of the MSHS program. MSHS programs provide child development, family support, and family engagement services to young children (birth to age 5) and their migrant and seasonal farmworker families. As with all Head Start services, programs are expected to be culturally and linguistically responsive, to engage families in their children’s early education, and to assist families with accessing health and community services for their children. MSHS must be responsive to particular characteristics of their service population (e.g., highly rural; migrant families moving over the course of the agricultural season; primarily dual language learner children; etc).

Planning for the MSHS Study took an extensive period of time. The programs and families were not included in previous national Head Start studies as culturally and linguistically appropriate measures were not available. Parent and program staff focus groups informed the design; advocacy representatives and academic research experts also advised. In 2011, a report was published that a) presented a review of research literature on the migrant and seasonal farmworker families and children, b) identified appropriate methods for sampling the wide variations in MSHS programs, and c) presented measures and draft surveys for collecting data from children (age zero to five), families, teachers and program administrators. The presentation will highlight a few key elements of this report.

The MSHS Study collected data between February 2017 and February 2018 from a planned representative sample of MSHS programs, centers, teachers, children and families. The full MSHS Study 2017 Data Tables report includes detailed information about the study design and measures.
A few features of the study design will be presented.

Data collection included:
• Surveys from program directors, center directors, teachers and assistant teachers, and parents
• Direct assessment and parent and teacher ratings of children’s skills
• Direct classroom observations

The study included a focus on bilingual language in the child development context, with measurement of preschool dual language learners’ skills, their family language context, and the bilingual language practices in MSHS classrooms. Language measurements include direct assessment, two classroom observation measures, and teacher reports of their own and the children’s bilingual language use.

The presentation will highlight a handful of the many areas where additional analyses might be explored. Examples of possible themes include 1) validation of measures of classroom cultural responsiveness; 2) examining family characteristics in association with children’s language skills; 3) examining the association between teacher characteristics and workforce development need; 4) reporting on the association between teacher and assistant teacher professional concerns and 5) exploring the associations between program incentives and staff retention.

In conclusion, the process for accessing the data and resources for preliminary exploration of the data will be described.

Authors

• Wendy DeCourcey, United States Department of Health and Human Services
  Presenting Author

• Jenessa Malin, United States Administration for Children and Families
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sandra Barrueco, Catholic University of America
  Non-Presenting Author

• Michael L. Lopez, NORC at the University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author

• Erin Bumgarner, Abt Associates - Massachusetts
  Non-Presenting Author

• Linda Caswell, Abt Associates
  Non-Presenting Author