A Portrait of Head Start Programs: Informing Efforts to Monitor and Support Quality

• In Event: Data for Decisions: Family and Child Experiences Survey as a Model of Policy-Driven and Policy-Guiding Research

Abstract

A central question for Head Start and the early childhood field is how to best support improvements in children’s outcomes. Although under-researched in the early childhood field, an extensive literature from multiple fields shows that program functioning matters for staff at all levels and those they serve. Leaders and managers create environments that promote success, including positive outcomes for children (Marzano et al. 2005); and they play a role in staff’s productivity, empowerment and approach to implementation (Boyatzis and McKee 2005; Greenhalgh et al. 2005; Kruse 2001). This program-level view is critical for Head Start, as the new Designation Renewal System evaluates whole programs along seven dimensions of functioning—reflecting aspects of both management and classroom quality summarized to the program level—to determine if programs must re-compete for grants.
Using data from the 2009 cohort of the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), a descriptive study of children and families in a nationally representative sample of Head Start programs, we examine these issues with the following questions:
(1) Who are the leaders and managers of programs? What do they perceive as key challenges to their work?
(2) What types of professional development supports do Head Start teachers receive, and who provides it?
(3) What is the average level and variation of classroom quality at the program level? Does program-level quality (average-level, variation) relate to characteristics of the children and families served or program processes?
Sixty programs, 129 centers, 486 classrooms, 439 teachers, and 3,119 parents of children entering Head Start for the first time participated in the study in fall 2009. This paper draws on data from interviews with leaders and managers, teachers, and parents in fall 2009 and/or spring 2010, and classroom observations from spring 2010 and 2011.
Descriptive analyses show that too many conflicting demands and time constraints make it hard for the majority of Education Coordinators (88 percent and 81 percent, respectively), Center Directors (85 percent and 79 percent, respectively) and Program Directors (86 percent and 68 percent, respectively) to do their jobs well (Figure 1). Nonetheless, they and teachers report high levels of job satisfaction. Teachers were also likely to report having a mentor (an average of 75 percent across programs).
We also examined average classroom quality and variation in quality within programs using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS; Pianta et al. 2008) and Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales-Revised short form (ECERS-R; Harms et al. 1998). Programs score in the low range for CLASS Instructional Support (2.2 on a 1 to 7 scale) and for Emotional Support and Classroom Organization in the middle range (5.4 and 4.7, respectively). For the ECERS-R, the Teaching and Interactions and Provisions for Learning factors are in the mid-range, 4.9 and 4.1, respectively, on a 1 to 7 scale.
We will next examine whether program characteristics (population served, program processes, teacher characteristics) vary according to average classroom quality and variation in quality. Implications for Office of Head Start efforts to support and monitor programs will be discussed.

Author

• Emily Moiduddin, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.