How Research Informs Policy and Practice in the Office of Head Start

• In Event: Federal Agency Poster Session

Abstract

The federally-funded Head Start program promotes the school readiness of children from low-income families through the provision of early education and comprehensive services. Local agencies receive funding to provide Head Start and Early Head Start services to pregnant women and children birth to age 5 in communities across the country. In addition to education services, programs provide children and their families with health, mental health, nutrition, social, and other services. Head Start services are responsive to each child and family's ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage. The Head Start program is authorized by the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007.

The Office of Head Start (OHS) is the federal agency that administers and oversees Head Start and Early Head Start programming. OHS plays an important role in: providing funding appropriated annually by Congress to the local agencies that operate Head Start programs; determining the specific requirements all Head Start programs must meet; monitoring programs to ensure they meet these requirements; and promoting continuous quality improvement in program services through the provision of training and technical assistance (TTA) and other initiatives.

Head Start is often referred to as “the nation’s laboratory” for early childhood development. Indeed, OHS strives to ensure that the latest research and evidence on child development informs our work across the office, including policy, program operations, and TTA. For example, the Head Start Program Performance Standards (HSPPS) – which is the set of requirements that all Head Start programs must meet – were comprehensively revised in 2016. OHS extensively utilized child development research to inform this intensive revision of the HSPPS. In addition, the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework: Ages Birth to 5 (ELOF) describes what Head Start children should know and do in five core developmental domains. The ELOF is grounded in decades of research on how children develop and grow across the first five years of life and programs are required to ensure they are promoting children’s growth in the identified areas. Finally, as part of OHS’ federally-funded TTA system, OHS administers multiple National TTA Centers that function as a team to provide Head Start grantees with consistent information across all service areas. The Centers communicate best practices and provide research-based, content-rich, and practical resources to grantees.

Authors

• Lindsey Hutchison, United States Department of Health and Human Services
  Presenting Author

• Sangeeta Parikshak
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lorena Aceves, Child Trends -Maryland
  Non-Presenting Author