<DOC>
[109th Congress House Hearings]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access]
[DOCID: f:20629.wais]
THE BEST OF HEAD START: LEARNING FROM MODEL PROGRAMS
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EDUCATION REFORM
of the
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
AND THE WORKFORCE
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
April 14, 2005
__________
Serial No. 109-7
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and the Workforce
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/
house
or
Committee address: http://edworkforce.house.gov
______
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COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
JOHN A. BOEHNER, Ohio, Chairman
Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin, Vice George Miller, California
Chairman Dale E. Kildee, Michigan
Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, Major R. Owens, New York
California Donald M. Payne, New Jersey
Michael N. Castle, Delaware Robert E. Andrews, New Jersey
Sam Johnson, Texas Robert C. Scott, Virginia
Mark E. Souder, Indiana Lynn C. Woolsey, California
Charlie Norwood, Georgia Ruben Hinojosa, Texas
Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan Carolyn McCarthy, New York
Judy Biggert, Illinois John F. Tierney, Massachusetts
Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania Ron Kind, Wisconsin
Patrick J. Tiberi, Ohio Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio
Ric Keller, Florida David Wu, Oregon
Tom Osborne, Nebraska Rush D. Holt, New Jersey
Joe Wilson, South Carolina Susan A. Davis, California
Jon C. Porter, Nevada Betty McCollum, Minnesota
John Kline, Minnesota Danny K. Davis, Illinois
Marilyn N. Musgrave, Colorado Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona
Bob Inglis, South Carolina Chris Van Hollen, Maryland
Cathy McMorris, Washington Tim Ryan, Ohio
Kenny Marchant, Texas Timothy H. Bishop, New York
Tom Price, Georgia John Barrow, Georgia
Luis G. Fortuno, Puerto Rico
Bobby Jindal, Louisiana
Charles W. Boustany, Jr., Louisiana
Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Thelma D. Drake, Virginia
John R. ``Randy'' Kuhl, Jr., New
York
Paula Nowakowski, Staff Director
John Lawrence, Minority Staff Director
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EDUCATION REFORM
MICHAEL N. CASTLE, Delaware, Chairman
Tom Osborne, Nebraska, Vice Lynn C. Woolsey, California
Chairman Danny K. Davis, Illinois
Mark E. Souder, Indiana Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona
Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan Robert E. Andrews, New Jersey
Judy Biggert, Illinois Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott,
Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania Virginia
Ric Keller, Florida Ruben Hinojosa, Texas
Joe Wilson, South Carolina Ron Kind, Wisconsin
Marilyn N. Musgrave, Colorado Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio
Bobby Jindal, Louisiana Susan A. Davis, California
John R. ``Randy'' Kuhl, Jr., New George Miller, California, ex
York officio
John A. Boehner, Ohio, ex officio
------
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on April 14, 2005 2003.............................. 1
Statement of Members:
Castle, Hon. Michael N., Chairman, Subcommittee on Education
Reform, Committee on Education and the Workforce........... 2
Prepared statement of.................................... 3
Woolsey, Hon. Lynn C., Ranking Member, Subcommittee on
Education Reform, Committee on Education and the Workforce. 4
Prepared statement of.................................... 4
Statement of Witnesses:
Cunningham, Gayle, Executive Director, Jefferson County
Committee for Economic Opportunity Child Development
Services, Birmingham, AL................................... 29
Prepared statement of.................................... 31
Daeschner, Dr. Stephen W., Ph.D., Superintendent, Jefferson
County Schools, Louisville, KY............................. 7
Prepared statement of.................................... 8
Mainster, Barbara, Executive Director, Redlands Christian
Migrant Association, Immokalee, FL......................... 21
Prepared statement of.................................... 23
Marker, David, Chief Financial Officer, Miami Valley Child
Development Centers, Inc., Dayton, OH...................... 14
Prepared statement of.................................... 15
Siegfried, Scott, Program Coordinator, Miami Valley Child
Development Centers, Inc., Dayton, OH...................... 18
Prepared statement of.................................... 19
Additional materials supplied:
Field, Dr. Charles R., MD, MPH, FAAP, Mary Kaye McKinney and
Patricia A. Price, University of Arkansas for Medical
Sciences, Department of Pediatrics Head Start Program,
Pulaski County, AK, Statement submitted for the record..... 49
Melmed, Matthew E., J.D., Executive Director, Zero to Three
Policy Center, Washington, DC, Statement submitted for the
record..................................................... 53
Nolan, Dr. Tim, Director, Head Start Program, Waukesha
County, WI, Statement submitted for the record............. 57
Pagliaro, Ann, Head Start of Eastern Orange County, Newburgh,
NY, Statement submitted for the record..................... 62
THE BEST OF HEAD START: LEARNING FROM MODEL PROGRAMS
----------
Thursday, April 14, 2005
U.S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Education Reform
Committee on Education and the Workforce
Washington, DC
----------
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:32 a.m., in
room 2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Michael Castle
[Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Castle, Osborne, Ehlers, Biggert,
Woolsey, Grijalva, Scott, Hinojosa, Kind, Kucinich, and Davis
of California.
Ex officio: Representative Boehner.
Staff present: Amanda Farris, Professional Staff Member;
Kevin Frank, Professional Staff Member; Jessica Gross,
Legislative Assistant; Lucy House, Legislative Assistant; Kate
Houston, Professional Staff Member; Sally Lovejoy, Director of
Education and Human Resources Policy; Alexa Marrero, Press
Secretary; Deborah L. Samantar, Committee Clerk/Intern
Coordinator; Rich Stombres, Assistant Director of Education and
Human Resources Policy; Ruth Friedman, Minority Legislative
Associate/Education; Lloyd Horwich, Minority Legislative
Associate/Education; Ricardo Martinez, Minority Legislative
Associate/Education; Alex Nock, Minority Legislative Associate/
education, and Joe Novotny, Minority Legislative Assistant/
Education.
Chairman Castle. The Subcommittee on Education Reform of
the Committee on Education and the Workforce will come to
order. We are meeting today to hear testimony on ``The Best of
Head Start: Learning from Model Programs.'' Under Committee
Rule 12(b), opening statements are limited to the Chairman and
the Ranking Minority Member of the Subcommittee. Therefore, if
other Members have statements, they may be included in the
record.
With that, I ask unanimous consent for the hearing record
to remain open 14 days to allow Members' statements and other
extraneous material referenced during the hearing to be
submitted in the official hearing record. Without objection, so
ordered.
STATEMENT OF HON. MICHAEL N. CASTLE, CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON
EDUCATION REFORM, COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for a
hearing on ``The Best of Head Start: Learning from Model
Programs.'' As Congress prepares to strengthen and reauthorize
the Head Start program, I think it's vital that we listen to
those who have been successful so that we may learn from their
experience.
For the better part of 2 years, this Committee has been
making the case that Head Start is a good program that can be
made stronger. Since 1965, the Head Start program has provided
comprehensive health, developmental, and educational services
to disadvantaged four- and 5-year-olds. Head Start involves
parents and communities in helping prepare needy children to
succeed in school and beyond.
Yet despite the many success stories in the program, and
there are many, we have also heard troubling stories about
program weaknesses. The GAO recently released a report that
warned that the financial control system in the Federal Head
Start early childhood program is flawed and failing to prevent
multi-million dollar financial abuses that cheat poor children,
taxpayers, and law-abiding Head Start operators.
The GAO made some helpful recommendations on how we can
strengthen the oversight structure to prevent abuses and
protect good grantees. It recommended that increased
competition in the program could help weed out poorly
performing grantees and ensure high quality services are
available to children and families. This Committee has long
supported competition as a way to foster innovation and
quality, and that is a recommendation we intend to take
seriously.
In addition to listening to the GAO, we are reaching out to
the public for insight and input on how we can make Head Start
stronger and ensure its continued success into the future. We
launched a website about 2 weeks ago, and already we've
received more than 200 responses from parents, teachers and
other stakeholders in early children education with
recommendations on how the program can be made stronger. We're
also seeking success stories about exemplary programs in local
communities. We want to know what works and what doesn't so
that we can learn from the experiences of those programs that
are leading by example.
Today we're going to hear from representatives of a few of
the many high quality programs participating in Head Start.
We've invited these witnesses to share their stories and help
us to better understand what factors can help a program to
succeed.
Exemplary programs should demonstrate success in multiple
facets of their program, including strong parent involvement;
success in improving child outcomes across all developmental
domains; a language-rich learning environment; well-qualified
staff and administrators; an engaged board of directors; clean
financial audits and program reviews; and full program
enrollment. Actually, it sounds like something Congress should
be doing.
Additionally, exemplary programs should secure community
involvement and support, and when possible, integrate Head
Start with pre-kindergarten and other early learning programs
within the community.
Programs that exhibit these qualities should be the rule,
not the exception. Today I hope our witnesses will help us to
define a gold standard for Head Start so that this Committee
can enact legislation that makes it easier for all programs to
meet it.
I thank the witnesses for joining us today, and I look
forward to hearing your testimony.
I will now yield to the gentlelady from California, the
Ranking Minority Member of this Subcommittee, Ms. Woolsey, for
her opening statement.
[The prepared statement of Chairman Castle follows:]
Statement of Hon. Michael N. Castle, Chairman, Subcommittee on
Education Reform, Committee on Education and the workforce
Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for a hearing on
``The Best of Head Start: Learning from Model Programs.'' As Congress
prepares to strengthen and reauthorize the Head Start program, I think
it's vital that we listen to those who have been successful so that we
may learn from their experience.
For the better part of two years, this committee has been making
the case that Head Start is a good program that can be made stronger.
Since 1965, the Head Start program has provided comprehensive health,
developmental, and educational services to disadvantaged four and five-
year olds. Head Start involves parents and communities in helping
prepare needy children to succeed in school and beyond.
Yet despite the many success stories in the program--and there are
many--we have also heard troubling stories about program weaknesses.
The GAO recently released a report that warned the financial control
system in the federal Head Start early childhood program is flawed and
failing to prevent multi-million dollar financial abuses that cheat
poor children, taxpayers, and law-abiding Head Start operators.
The GAO made some helpful recommendations on how we can strengthen
the oversight structure to prevent abuses and protect good grantees. It
recommended that increased competition in the program could help weed
out poorly performing grantees and ensure high quality services are
available to children and families. This committee has long supported
competition as a way to foster innovation and quality, and that is a
recommendation we intend to take seriously.
In addition to listening to the GAO, we are reaching out to the
public for insight and input on how we can make Head Start stronger and
ensure its continued success into the future. We launched a website
about two weeks ago, and already we've received more than 200 responses
from parents, teachers, and other stakeholders in early childhood
education with recommendations on how the program can be made stronger.
We're also seeking ``success stories'' about exemplary programs in
local communities. We want to know what works and what doesn't so that
we can learn from the experiences of those programs that are leading by
example.
Today, we're going to hear from representatives of a few of the
many high quality programs participating in Head Start. We've invited
these witnesses to share their stories and help us to better understand
what factors can help a program to succeed.
Exemplary programs should demonstrate success in multiple facets of
their program, including strong parent involvement; success in
improving child outcomes across all developmental domains; a language-
rich learning environment; well-qualified staff and administrators; an
engaged board of directors; clean financial audits and program reviews;
and, full program enrollment. Additionally, exemplary programs should
secure community involvement and support, and when possible, integrate
Head Start with pre-kindergarten and other early learning programs
within the community.
Programs that exhibit these qualities should be the rule, not the
exception. Today, I hope our witnesses will help us to define a gold
standard for Head Start so that this Committee can enact legislation
that makes it easier for all programs to meet it.
I thank the witnesses for joining us today, and I look forward to
hearing your testimony. I will now yield to the gentle lady from
California, the ranking minority member of this subcommittee, Rep.
Woolsey.
______
STATEMENT OF HON. LYNN C. WOOLSEY, RANKING MEMBER, SUBCOMMITTEE
ON EDUCATION REFORM, COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
Ms. Woolsey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I, too,
appreciate your holding this hearing, because it's a very
important topic, learning from model programs.
As we continue the reauthorization process that we began
last Congress, the 108th Congress, I'm pleased that we have
another opportunity, and this one in particular, to hear
directly from four high-quality Head Start programs. We want
your thoughts. We want to know what makes your programs great
and what you think about reauthorization in general.
In any reauthorization, I think one of the most important
steps is to listen to the people who put the laws that we write
into practice every day. We already know that the vast majority
of Head Start programs provide comprehensive, high quality
services that help children make academic and social gains so
that they can close much if not all of the achievement gap
before they begin kindergarten.
Head Start also has strong standards, and we know that, and
monitoring and accountability measures built into the law to
ensure high performance, although we need to make certain that
those measures are enforced.
I look forward, as I said, to hearing from our witnesses
about how those measures have helped them and if it's improved
the quality of their programs, and if not, what we can do to
improve. Because all of us, most of all the people involved in
the Head Start programs around the country, who have dedicated
themselves to improving our most vulnerable children's lives,
all of us recognize that standards and accountability are not
about Democrats, not about Republicans, they're about our
children.
And, of course, another way to improve those children's
lives is to devote more resources to Head Start. In that way,
more children can benefit from the programs like the ones
represented on this panel. Unfortunately, this President and
this Congress have not done well in that area, so we need to
hold ourselves accountable as well.
But again, Mr. Chairman, I look forward to what I hope will
be a bipartisan reauthorization of Head Start and to hearing
from the experts on this panel.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Woolsey follows:]
Statement of Hon. Lynn C. Woolsey, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on
Education Reform, Committee on Education and the Workforce
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I appreciate your holding this hearing today on this important
topic--``Learning From Model Programs.''
As we continue the reauthorization process that we began last
Congress, I am pleased that we have an opportunity to hear directly
from four high-quality Head Start programs about what makes a great
program and on reauthorization in general.
In any reauthorization, I think one of the most important steps is
to listen to the people who have to put the laws we write into practice
every day.
We already know that the vast majority of Head Start programs
provide comprehensive, high quality services that help children make
academic and social gains so that they can close much, if not all, of
the achievement gap, before they begin kindergarten.
Head Start also has strong standards, monitoring, and
accountability measures built into the law to ensure high performance,
although we need to take care to see that those measures are enforced.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about how those
measures have helped them improve the quality of their programs and
what we can do to improve.
Because all of us--most of all, the people in Head Start programs
around the country, who have dedicated themselves to improving our most
vulnerable children's lives--recognize that standards and
accountability are not about Democrats or Republicans; they're about
those children.
Of course, another way to improve those children's lives is to
devote more resources to Head Start so that more children can benefit
from programs like the ones represented on this panel.
Unfortunately, this President and this Congress have not done well
in that area, and so we need to hold ourselves more accountable as
well.
But again, Mr. Chairman, I look forward to what I hope will be a
bipartisan reauthorization of Head Start, and to hearing from this
panel.
Thank you.
______
Chairman Castle. Thank you, Ms. Woolsey. And we do have a
very distinguished panel of witnesses today, and we're going to
go through the introductions at this point. And we'll do it
across the order here.
But the first is Stephen W. Daeschner, Ph.D. Dr. Daeschner
is the Superintendent of the Jefferson County Public School
District in Louisville, Kentucky. JCPS is the 28th-largest
district in the nation, serving 96,000 students from preschool
through grade 12.
Since 1993, Dr. Daeschner has been responsible for the
implementation of a systemic pre-kindergarten program for
three- and 4-year-olds using funding from Head Start and state
level school readiness initiatives. Dr. Daeschner is a board
member for Greater Louisville, Inc., the Metro Chamber of
Commerce, and is an adjunct professor at the University of
Louisville. He holds a Ph.D. in education administration from
the University of Wisconsin.
And thank you. We appreciate having you here, Dr.
Daeschner.
At this time I would like to welcome the Chairman of the
Full Committee, John Boehner, to the Subcommittee. A few of the
witnesses joining us today are from the Chairman's district,
and it's my pleasure to recognize him for the purpose of
introducing these witnesses.
Mr. Boehner. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I'm pleased
to introduce David Marker. Mr. Marker is the Chief Financial
Officer of the Miami Valley Child Development Centers, a
single-purpose Head Start agency in Dayton, Ohio. Working for
the agency for over a decade, Mr. Marker was promoted to chief
financial officer in 2002 and is responsible for assisting with
the overall management of the organization.
Mr. Marker is a recognized expert in nonprofit management
who is dedicated to the agency's goal to maintain professional
standards of conduct in all aspects of fiscal and program
management. And before working with the Miami Valley program,
Mr. Marker managed the Dayton Metropolitan Housing Authority.
He's joined with one of his colleagues, Scott Siegfried,
who is with the Miami Valley Child Development Centers, as
well. He is the agency's program director, responsible for
supervising all education, staff, and activity since 1991. He
oversees child assessment activities to ensure that all
children are making academic progress, and maintains a
successful track record in preparing their students for
kindergarten.
Mr. Siegfried is a member of the National and Dayton
Associations for the Education of Young Children, as well as
the Dayton Public Schools Preschool Network. And he holds a
master's degree in early childhood education from Nova
Southeastern University.
I might also add that they have with them their boss, Ms.
Sherrie Lookner, who is the president and CEO at Miami Valley.
She's here today, and we want to thank her for coming. They
together operate a top notch Head Start program, covering part
of my district and Mr. Hobson's district, as well, and I think
she and her staff deserve great credit for the successful
program that they have. And I'll say welcome.
Chairman Castle. Sherrie, could you raise your hand,
please, so we can know who you are. Sherrie Lookner, right
there. We appreciate having you here, as well.
The next witness is Barbara Louise Mainster. Ms. Mainster
is the Executive Director of the Redlands Christian Migrant
Association, a Head Start agency serving the children of
migrant and seasonal farm workers. Ms. Mainster has worked with
RCMA for over 30 years in capacities including program director
and education coordinator, and was a member of the State of
Florida Universal Prekindergarten Advisory Council. Ms.
Mainster holds a degree in social services from Michigan State
University.
Welcome.
And Gayle Cunningham is with us. Ms. Cunningham is the
Executive Director of the Jefferson County Committee for
Economic Opportunity located in Birmingham, Alabama, and
director of the agency's Head Start and Early Head Start
programs.
She is a research partner with the Georgia State University
Head Start Quality Research Center, where her Head Start
program participated in a design effectiveness study for the
1998-1999 program year.
Ms. Cunningham was formerly an assistant professor of early
childhood education at Delgado Community College in New Orleans
and a senior research associate for Bank Street College, where
she led the expansion of the Child Development Associate
Credentialing Program to include infant and toddler caregivers,
home visitors, and family daycare providers.
Ms. Cunningham received her M.S. in early childhood
education, supervision, and administration from Bank Street
College of Education.
And before the witnesses begin, I would like to remind the
Members here that we will be asking questions after the entire
panel has testified, for your information, as well. In
addition, Committee Rule 2 imposes a 5-minute limit on all
questions. And you all have the clock system in front of you. I
think you understand it. You have 4 minutes on green, one on
yellow, and when you see the red, you're supposed to start
winding down, shall we say, or get wound down. But we do want
to hear from you, and we really do appreciate all of you being
here. We always know there's some logistical issues in getting
here and being with us, so we do appreciate you being here on
time and ready to go.
And with that, Dr. Daeschner, we look forward to your
testimony.
STATEMENT OF STEPHEN W. DAESCHNER, PH.D., SUPERINTENDENT,
JEFFERSON COUNTY SCHOOLS, LOUISVILLE, KY
Dr. Daeschner. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Honorable
Members of the Subcommittee. Our Head Start, Early Head Start
programs, our State Preschool Program for students on
subsidized meals, and our Tuition-based Preschool currently
serve more than 5,400 children ages 4 and under.
Our school district's Early Childhood Education Program is
exemplary and unique in large part because we use an
integrated, seamless approach to provide programs and services.
The Head Start and State Preschool Programs are intentionally
connected through common leadership to provide a uniform,
developmentally appropriate curriculum.
Our program is outcome based, and assessment is the key.
Every three- and 4-year-old student receives frequent
assessments and also completes an end-of-year profile that
measures mastery of the physical, social and pre-academic
skills.
Teachers certainly receive intensive monthly and summer
training based on these skill sets that we assess quite
frequently. Teachers are supported, as an example, with a web-
based Core Content Guides that match the curriculum with
calendar-based timelines to ensure that every classroom is
presenting the same instructional material with the same level
of rigor.
Another exemplary strategy rests in our creative yet
physically sound management of financial resources. Our $35
million annual preschool budget consists of 58 percent Head
Start and other Federal programs like Title I, 22 percent state
preschool funds, 16 percent from our district through local
taxes, 3 percent from parents that pay tuition, and 1 percent
from local business donations. This integrated funding allows
all children to receive increased instructional and support
services without regard to where their program funding is
generated.
Meaningful parent involvement is absolutely essential.
Parents are engaged through a home/school contract that
includes daily reading with their child and take-home
activities. Since 76 percent of our preschoolers are from
single-parent households, our nationally recognized Fatherhood/
Male Initiative ensures that more children are connected with a
significant, positive male role model.
How do we know our efforts are working, is with our results
and our outcomes. Let me give you an example of the 2004 end-
of-year outcomes. With 91 percent mastery for the economically
disadvantaged students funded by our state program, 96 percent
mastery for our middle and upper class students who pay
tuition, and 97 percent mastery for children funded by Head
Start. As you can see, it makes a big difference.
What can you do to support our efforts? A quality Head
Start program integrated into or with a school district
operation program we think is very important. Creative
implementation strategies are required to effectively meet the
regulations of both Head Start program and a state department
of Education's preschool program. Without a doubt, we can do a
better job for our children and families by operating under one
set of guidelines.
We certainly ask your considerations to grant at least a
handful of large districts that are current Head Start grantees
the authority to operate Head Start programs within state
regulations while maintaining the integrity of the standards
provided by Head Start. We would be most eager to serve as one
of these pilot projects.
We support a proposal offered by Congresswoman Anne Northup
to enable states to allow some of their school districts and
Head Start programs to apply for the pilot programs.
Finally, I feel compelled to draw your attention to one
very intrusive, as an example, regulation, that has recently
sprung up from Head Start, which is the requirement that all
vehicles transporting Head Start children have restraint. Our
preschoolers in our district are transported on buses that meet
state standards, and Kentucky has one of the toughest bus
regulations in the nation. Purchasing and installing child
restraints would cost our district approximately $5.8 million.
The diversion of these funds would result in a reduced number
of children served by Head Start. Later I might give you an
example.
We appreciate Congresswoman Northup's action to resolve
this issue for us and hope this reauthorization of Head Start
can adopt the language she has proposed for permanent
enactment.
I would certainly encourage your review of my written
comments that expand on many of these verbal statements. I
certainly appreciate and thank you for allowing me to share our
successes and some of the recommendations. We think Head Start
is just an absolutely essential part of our program.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Daeschner follows:]
Statement of Stephen W. Daeschner, Ph.D., Superintendent, Jefferson
County Schools, Louisville, KY
Chairman Castle and Honorable Members of the Subcommittee on
Education Reform, as you consider the reauthorization of Head Start, I
appreciate your invitation to address the issue of exemplary programs
for our youngest students. My name is Stephen Daeschner, and I am
superintendent of the Jefferson County Public School District in
Louisville, Kentucky, the nation's 28th largest school district,
serving more than 98,000 students from birth to grade 12. Our Head
Start and Early Head Start programs, our State Preschool Program for
students on subsidized meals, and our Tuition Preschool Program
currently serve more than 5,400 children ages four and under.
Our school district's Early Childhood Education Program is
exemplary and unique in large part because we use an integrated,
seamless approach to providing programs and services. The Head Start
and State Preschool Programs are intentionally connected under common
leadership to provide a uniform, developmentally appropriate
curriculum. Because Kentucky uses high stakes accountability testing,
our District has much to gain by ensuring the early preparedness of all
our preschoolers.
In addition to our common curriculum and services, there are other
exemplary strategies that contribute to our success. These strategies
include assessment and outcome standards, professional development,
core content guides, interventions, combined funding sources, and
parent involvement.
Our program is outcome based and assessment is key. Every three-
and four-year-old student receives frequent assessments and also
completes an end-of-year profile that measures mastery of physical,
social, and pre-academic skills. Results from the individual profiles
also are used to monitor curriculum implementation districtwide and to
plan for teacher training in any curricular area that shows systemic
weakness.
Teachers receive intensive monthly and summer training focused on
core content areas, math and literacy curriculum, intervention
strategies, and summer skills reinforcement to ensure that all children
are academically prepared for kindergarten, regardless of family
economic circumstances.. Weekly site meetings are held to discuss
program issues and collaborate on student needs.
Teachers are supported with web-based Core Content Guides that
match the curriculum with calendar-based timelines to ensure that every
classroom is presenting the same instructional material with the same
level of intensity. Technology plays a major role in student learning
today, and our preschoolers get a jumpstart on computer learning,
especially in the area of literacy, thanks to the provision of
computers in every classroom.
Another exemplary strategy rests in our creative yet fiscally sound
management of financial resources. Our $35 million annual preschool
budget consists of 58 percent federal Head Start funds, 22 percent
state preschool funds, 16 percent from the district in local tax funds,
3 percent from parents for tuition programs, and an additional 1
percent from local business donations. This integrated funding allows
all children to receive increased instructional and support services
without regard to where their program funding is generated.
Meaningful parent involvement is essential to our early childhood
program. Parents are engaged through a home/school contract that
includes daily reading with their child and take-home activities. Since
76 percent of our preschoolers are from single-parent households, our
nationally recognized Fatherhood/Male Initiative helps ensure that more
children are connected with a significant, positive male role model.
We also use a formal transition program to assist students and
parents as they move on to kindergarten, and we operate a Parent
Assistance Center and Family Resource Centers that help families with a
variety of school programs and social services. The intent is to remove
any family barriers that would impede a child's academic progress.
How do we know our efforts are working? The proof is in the data.
First, over a three-year period, our preschoolers'' mastery of skills
deemed important for kindergarten success has increased from the level
of 65 percent to 94 percent. Meanwhile, our Head Start students''
performance exceeds both state and National Reporting Systems averages.
Additionally, results on the nationally-normed Comprehensive Test of
Basic Skills show our third graders progressing from the 46th
percentile in 1999 to the 59th percentile in 2004. We attribute much of
this gain to the long-term effect of our strong Head Start/preschool
program.
Second, community support and partnerships continue to grow, with
Louisville Metro businesses giving over $3 million for additional early
childhood classrooms. Third, by integrating our funds from multiple
sources, we have increased the number of children served, the amount of
instructional time each child receives, and the social services
provided. Finally, one of our most significant and unexpected outcomes
is that we are now in the process of designing a more rigorous
kindergarten curriculum because our preschool/Head Start programs are
sending children on to kindergarten with a much higher level of skill
mastery.
What can you do to support our efforts? A quality Head Start
program integrated into or with a school district-operated program is
essential. This developmental education process and seamless transition
are as important to schools today as the kindergarten program debate
and implementation were in the 1960s and ``70s.
Creative implementation strategies are required to effectively meet
the regulations of the Health and Human Services Department's Head
Start program, while simultaneously operating a state Department of
Education preschool program. Without doubt, we can do a better job for
our children and families by operating under one set of guidelines.
We understand that you are considering allowing a limited number of
states or localities to participate in State Demonstration programs. We
ask your consideration to grant a handful of large districts, that are
current Head Start grantees, the authority to serve as local
demonstration projects that would operate Head Start programs within
state regulations while maintaining the integrity of the health and
social services standards provided by Head Start. We would be most
eager to serve as one of those demonstration projects.
Many states face political pressure from other agencies operating
Head Start programs. Some states may not be able to apply for school
districts that are operating as grantees. As an alternative, we support
a proposal offered by Congresswoman Anne Northup to enable states to
allow some of their school districts and Head Start programs to apply
for the demonstration programs. Kentucky's program could be
administered under the Secretary of Education and the Office of the
Governor.
Finally, I feel compelled to call to your attention one very
intrusive regulation that has recently sprung from Head Start, which is
the requirement for seat belts on all vehicles transporting Head Start
children. Our preschoolers are transported on buses that meet state
standards. Purchasing and installing seat belts would cost over $3.6
million and require another $2.2 million annually for maintenance. Even
then, our insurance companies inform us the buses may not be insurable
due to changes in the vehicles'' structure. The diversion of these
funds would result in a reduced number of children served by Head
Start. Additionally, there is no evidence that seatbelts provide
additional protection but, in fact, may actually create a safety
hazard. We appreciate Congresswoman Northup's action to resolve this
issue for us and hope this reauthorization of Head Start can adopt the
language she has proposed for permanent enactment.
Thank you for allowing me to share our successes and
recommendations with this Honorable body.
[Attachments to Dr. Daeschner's statement follow:]
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------
Chairman Castle. Thank you, Dr. Daeschner. We appreciate
your testimony a great deal, and we'll get back to you shortly
here with a few questions.
And now we'll turn to Mr. Marker and Mr. Siegfried, who are
going to do this jointly, as I understand it.
Mr. Marker. Yes, sir.
STATEMENT OF DAVID F. MARKER, CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, MIAMI
VALLEY CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTERS, INC., DAYTON, OH
Mr. Marker. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, I'm
David Marker and this is Scott Siegfried to my left. We are
both pleased to be here this morning to discuss accountability
and child outcomes in the Head Start program.
This Committee has heard of luxury SUVs, exorbitant
salaries, credit card abuse and unallowable program expenses
that have resulted in eligible children not being served. These
headlines anger me and the people I work with.
Since 1964, MVCDC has operated with oversight from
concerned community leaders on our board of trustees. Our
corporate culture is based on a core value of honesty,
integrity and understanding that we are stewards of tax dollars
entrusted to our care. Desired results require continual
training, review of current law, and review of internal
controls. In the absence of strong internal controls, you will
find fraud, waste and mismanagement.
High levels of integrity require hard work. We did not wait
for the effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to filter down to
501(c)(3) organizations. We embraced the concept of executive-
driven, internal control management, and it's now in effect.
There's no magic formula to maintain strong financial and
accounting practices. Success requires effort and a conscious
desire to operate a quality program in accordance with
regulations.
Suggestions to protect funds and increase accountability,
as an example, OMB Circular A-133 requires audits to be
submitted no later than 9 months after the end of a fiscal
year. I suggest a change from 9 months to 6 months. Critical
information can then be in the hands of DHHS 3 months sooner.
Most grantees draw down Federal funds from the Division of
Payment Management's website. DPM is efficient, but grantee
expenditures are not reconciled with funds received except at
six and 12-month intervals with the standard Form 269 report.
At a minimum, the report should be submitted on a quarterly or
even a monthly basis to allow for simple reconciliation.
Mismanagement of Federal funds requires swift intervention.
DHHS can terminate a grantee's ability to draw down funds and
to change that grantee to funding on a reimbursement basis.
This action protects Federal funds by allowing the regional
office to authorize payment only after documentation has been
reviewed.
GAO has recommended allowing recompetition of grants.
Grantees with consistent poor financial and programmatic
performance would be the ideal candidates for recompetition.
DHHS should remove dysfunctional programs.
I want to thank the Chairman and Members of the Committee
on Education and the Workforce for providing me this
opportunity to summarize my written testimonial report.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Marker follows:]
Statement of David F. Marker, Chief Financial Officer, Miami Valley
Child Development Centers, Inc., Dayton, OH
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, I am David Marker and this
is Scott Siegfried and we are both pleased to be here this morning to
discuss accountability and child outcomes in the nation's Head Start
program.
Operation of exemplary programs
From previous testimony, the committee has been apprised of
apparent misfeasance or malfeasance in some Head Start programs across
the country. These problems range from a luxury SUV and exorbitant
salaries and credit card abuse, to unallowable program expenses that
result in eligible children not being served. These headlines anger me,
the staff I work with, and the people at the majority of Head Start
programs where problems of this nature do not occur.
Miami Valley Child Development Centers, Inc. (MVCDC) was
incorporated in 1964, at the time of the creation of the nation's first
experiment with Head Start. Operating over the years with strong
management, and oversight from concerned community leaders
participating on the Board of Trustees, MVCDC developed a corporate
culture with core values of honesty, integrity, service to the
community, and an understanding that we are stewards of tax dollars
entrusted to our care. During our 40 year history, there have been
problems and bumps in the road, but the culture of MVCDC has survived
and enabled the agency to operate for more than 15 years without any
audit findings related to financial management. Although MVCDC may be
considered an exemplary program within the Head Start community, a
designation as exemplary today is no guarantee that the program will be
exemplary tomorrow without continued hard work.
The culture of MVCDC dictates a professional approach to financial
management and accounting practices. To achieve the desired result
requires continual training, review of current laws and regulations,
and a constant review of internal controls. In the absence of strong
internal controls, you will find misuse of credit cards, unallowable
expenses, waste, and possible fraud. It is important not only to
maintain strong internal controls but to sharpen the focus of all staff
members to be alert for the signs of waste, fraud, and mismanagement.
MVCDC has been successful in maintaining high levels of integrity
through dedication and hard work. As an example, we did not wait for
the effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to filter down to 501(c)(3)
organizations. As a corporation, we embraced the basic concept of
executive-driven internal control management. The Board of Trustees
adopted an extensive misconduct, dishonesty, and fraud policy which was
added to our Personnel Policies, and various staff have been involved
in implementing the policy. Additionally, staff are involved in a
detailed risk assessment activity that is assessing all aspects of the
corporation. Once completed, the risk assessment will be presented to
the Board of Trustees for their evaluation and comment.
There is no magic formula to maintain strong finance and accounting
practices. Success requires dedication, hard work, and a conscious
desire to operate a quality program in accordance with the regulations.
The people who operate programs in this manner are easy to identify;
they take no offense at being called a variety of names, and they have
thick skin because the job requires them to say ``no'' more often than
they say ``yes''. The easy way to deal with difficult financial and
accounting issues is to be lax and accommodating. Unfortunately, this
type of management will eventually result in violation of regulations
and ultimately, serious financial problems.
Again, I want to express my anger at the examples of program abuse
that we have all read in the newspapers. The vast majority of programs
struggle everyday to operate in accordance with the regulations to
serve all of the children for which they are funded. To protect tax
dollars and ensure services are delivered to the at-risk population,
however, accountability for program performance and fiscal management
must be strengthened. From my perspective as a program operator, I
believe that accountability can be vastly improved in the following
ways.
Proper review and follow-up of audits
O. M. B. Circular No. A-133, known as the Single Audit Act,
contains the audit requirements for recipients of federal awards. For
those agencies with awards less than $500,000, audits are still
required under the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) CFR
Title 45, Part 74. The potential problem I see under A-133 is that
audits must be submitted no later than nine (9) months after the end of
the fiscal year. I believe that by changing the submission date from
nine (9) months to six (6) months, controls would be strengthened by
putting the completed audit in the hands of DHHS three (3) months
sooner, and would not present an undue hardship for programs.
Once the audit has been received by the DHHS national center, it is
imperative that the entire audit be reviewed for financial or
programmatic irregularities. If irregularities are found in the audit,
this information must be provided to the appropriate Regional Office
for immediate follow-up. Obviously, findings of questioned costs or
other serious fiscal problems, along with issues regarding the health
and safety of children must receive the highest priority for action by
the Regional Office staff. Swift follow-up action as early as possible
is a key to limiting the loss of dollars and guiding the agency into
compliance from a programmatic standpoint.
Although auditors only offer opinions on the financial statements
and information provided by management, I believe that it is important
that all audits be reviewed for their compliance with the audit
requirements of Circular A-133 and Government Accounting Standards,
issued by the Comptroller General of the United States. Lack of
comments regarding performance of the activities required by the grant,
qualified opinions, or a statement that the audit was completed under
some standard other than Generally Accepted Accounting Principles,
should be cause to examine the audit more closely.
Identifying potential financial and programmatic mismanagement
In addition to the annual financial and performance audit,
financial mismanagement may be identified in other ways. One method is
to reconcile the federal funds drawn-down by a grantee to the amount
that is spent throughout the year. Currently, most Head Start grantees
draw-down their federal funds from the Division of Payment Management's
(DPM) website. All grant information is entered into DPM's database,
and grantees use the site to request funds. The regulations for cash
advances state, ``The timing and amount of cash advances shall be as
close as is administratively feasible to the actual disbursements by
the recipient organization''.
The DPM system is very efficient for grantees to obtain funds, but
it does not appear that DHHS or the Regional Offices attempt to
reconcile grantee expenditures except at six and 12 month intervals by
utilizing the SF-269 report. At a minimum, the SF-269 should be
submitted on a quarterly or possibly a monthly basis. This report could
be developed as an on-line report which would make it simple for the
Regional Office to compare expenditures with the data from DPM.
Reconciliation would be straightforward to determine the amount of
funds being requested by a grantee and the amount that has been
expended as reported on the SF-269. As an example, if, at the end of
the first quarter of the grantees fiscal year they have already drawn-
down 50 percent of their annual funding, it would seem reasonable to
think there may be a serious problem with that grantee. Making this
change would provide DHHS with the ability to identify potential
problems early as a means of preventing the financial mismanagement
from worsening.
Fiscal and programmatic mismanagement may also be identified during
the on-site monitoring visit with the Program Review Instrument for
Systems Monitoring (PRISM) every three years. The PRISM was described
in previous testimony so there is no need to provide you with the same
information again. I will say that since the Fiscal Checklist was
modified in 2004, the instrument has a design which will help to
identify fiscal problems more effectively than the previous version. A
potential problem with the PRISM is the shear volume of data that is
reviewed and processed. The review team rates the grantee on about 670
performance indicators during the one week visit. If the review is
focused on critical indicators, both financial and programmatic,
serious problems would be more readily discernable rather than lost in
the minutia that is collected.
An area of programmatic performance that may now be assessed is the
data that is submitted via the National Reporting System (NRS). These
assessment data are submitted in the fall and spring of each year for
the four year old children who will be attending kindergarten in the
fall of the following school year. Although the NRS was not designed to
determine the performance of the Head Start program, the data that is
generated may raise questions regarding curriculum or teaching methods.
As an example, if the data indicates that children from one Head Start
program are consistently more than one deviation below the national
average, it would seem reasonable to contact the program to find out if
there are reasons for the lower scores. Based on the response from the
agency, along with other outcome data, it may be determined that
additional training and technical assistance are required, or it may be
determined that there is a more systemic problem that may require an
on-site visit by a Regional Office staff member.
Required follow-up for financial and programmatic mismanagement
I believe that it is reasonable to expect that Head Start grantees
that mismanage funds or fail to perform all the requirements of the
grant will be sanctioned in some manner. I am not describing actual
accounting errors where something was posted to the wrong account, and
is later identified and corrected, I am describing serious cases where
money or assets have been wasted or used for personal gain. In almost
all cases involving money, the mismanagement can be clearly identified
from the records; an expenditure is allowable or it is not; money is
either properly accounted for, or it is not. In either event, the
appropriate action should be taken as quickly as possible. Failure to
perform all the requirements of the grant can also be identified and
must also be acted on as quickly as possible.
If the mismanagement of federal funds results from apparent
malfeasance, then serious intervention is required. Although action to
de-fund a grantee may be difficult and time consuming, it may be
possible to change the grantee's payment status to protect federal
funds. I believe that it is possible, with good reason, to terminate
the grantee's rights to draw-down funds through DPM and to fund them on
a reimbursement basis. That is, on a weekly or monthly basis, the
grantee pays all expenses and submits the appropriate documentation to
the Regional Office for reimbursement. Under this scenario, if the
grantee can fund the operation up-front, the Regional Office will have
ample time to review invoices and billing prior to providing
reimbursement. The Regional Office will also have time to investigate
the initial incident of malfeasance that came to their attention. If it
is determined that the grantee did nothing wrong, and that internal
controls are sound, then DHHS may reinstate the grantee's ability to
draw-down funds in advance.
Many of the programmatic problems that are identified have to do
with non-health and safety issues. As described previously, with over
670 performance indicators in the PRISM instrument, it is not difficult
to find areas of non-compliance. All of these issues can be dealt with
effectively under the current system by having the grantee prepare a
corrective action plan. The Regional Office can follow-up in writing
with the grantee until the grantee ensures that the non-compliance have
been corrected. Depending on the number of non-compliances and the
seriousness of the issues, the Regional Office may send a staff person
on site to verify that the non-compliances were corrected.
Increased competition for Head Start Grants
The independent Government Accountability Office (GAO) has
recommended that the federal government take steps to allow the
``recompetition'' of grants awarded to Head Start grantees. It has been
suggested that all Head Start grants should go out for open competition
every third year of the grant cycle. In light of the many problems
identified in Head Start programs during the past year, I understand
the desire to fix the problem through competition.
I believe there is a relative agreement that the majority of Head
Start programs are operating within the regulations and are clearly
documenting the progress children make during their stay in Head Start.
Rather than re-compete every Head Start grant at the end of their three
year grant cycle, at great expense, I believe that re-competition can
be combined with de-funding activities to remove all of the poorly
performing grantees. Grantees with serious financial mismanagement
issues or serious health and safety violations should either undergo
the de-funding process or be placed on a reimbursement basis of funding
as previously described. The key is to act swiftly to ensure safety and
to limit the loss of federal funds.
Head Start grantees that consistently have generally poor
programmatic performance due to on-going deficiencies would be likely
candidates for re-competition. DHHS would be responsible to determine a
ranking process that is based on audit findings, PRISM findings, and
any other financial and programmatic data the Regional Office may
determine. Re-competition would provide DHHS with an additional tool
that would remove those programs not operating in an efficient and
effective manner.
I want to thank the Committee on Education and the Workforce for
providing me this opportunity to testify before you. As you consider
legislation to re-authorize the Head Start program, I hope you will
consider some of the information I have provided in conjunction with
testimony provided by others. I believe in the goals of Head Start. I
also believe that when operated in conformance with the laws and
regulations, coupled with the infusion of new early education research,
Head Start will make progress in closing the readiness gap that exists
between some Head Start children and their peers, and all funding will
reach the children it is meant to serve.
______
Chairman Castle. Good morning. Thank you very much, Mr.
Siegfried.
STATEMENT OF SCOTT SIEGFRIED, PROGRAM COORDINATOR, MIAMI VALLEY
CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTERS, INC., DAYTON, OH
Mr. Siegfried. The Miami Valley Child Development Centers
does not look through one lens to make one decision. Our system
of assessing child outcomes and program quality is
comprehensive in its approach. Just as a strong financial
system requires checks and balances, program quality and child
outcomes must also have such a system. Although we have a long
history of collecting and analyzing child outcome data, our
approach has become increasingly sophisticated in recent years.
Our objective is to create a system where child outcome
data can be incorporated into our agency's continuous
improvement plans. Our model remains flexible to allow for
adjustments as a result of the relevant research in the field
as well as the patterns and trends we observe when analyzing
our data. For example, Breakthrough to Literacy, a research
project piloted with Abt Associates, resulted from our endeavor
to strengthen the language and literacy skills of our children.
This plan incorporates teacher and child directed activities
that provide a balance of experiences in vocabulary, alphabet
knowledge, word recognition and phonological awareness.
Some of our systems, such as National Reporting System, and
the mandated system through the state called Get it, Got it,
Go, require the use of a standardized instrument implemented in
a uniform manner.
Other tools designed to measure child outcome such as High/
Scope's Child Observation Record, and individual portfolios,
rely on teacher observation, anecdotal notes, work sampling and
photography. These ongoing methods of assessment produce
observation-based data in a familiar setting to children.
The Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale and the
Infant and Toddler Environmental Rating Scale provide holistic
and quantifiable data and seven subscales related to space and
furnishings, personal care routines, language reasoning
activities, interaction, program structure and parents and
staff. Action plans are developed and implemented after each
data collection period. These plans address professional
development, resources and any curricular adjustments to ensure
maximal child outcomes.
Parents and staff are partners in the care and education of
children. Our system therefore supports, educates and guides
parents to provide meaningful experiences for the children at
home. To strengthen the role of families as the primary
educator of their children, we have developed a monthly
checklist using materials traditionally found in the homes that
support the content of the child observation record.
In addition, backpacks are sent home on a regular basis
with materials, parental strategies and extensions that can
support the development of critical concepts when that child is
away from school.
By relying on multiple systems of child assessment, we are
better able to make informed decisions regarding curricular
adjustments at the agency, classroom and individual level. The
complex nature of measuring the outcomes of children in Head
Start and their progress demands our relentless commitment.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Siegfried follows:]
Statement of Scott Siegfried, Program Coordinator, Miami Valley Child
Development Centers, Inc., Dayton, OH
I am pleased to be here this morning to discuss child outcomes in
the nation's Head Start program.
Changes in educational requirements and legislative mandates have
resulted in our development of an increasingly comprehensive child
outcome measuring system. Our agency's continuous improvement plans are
adjusted according to our child outcome data. It is important that our
system remain flexible to allow for adjustments as a result of the
relevant research in the field as well as the patterns and trends we
observe when analyzing our data.
By utilizing the Brigance tool to complete our developmental
screening process, we begin to understand the teaching strategies
required to encourage children's learning. Results from this screen
offer support for early intervention services where applicable.
In November 2004, author and scientist Dr. Debbie Cryer provided
training for our support staff on the implementation of the Early
Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) and the Infant/Toddler
Environment Rating Scale (ITERS). This nationally recognized evaluation
system quantifies several items under the broad categories of Space and
Furnishings, Personal Care Routine, Language-Reasoning, Activities,
Interaction, Program Structure and Parents and Staff. As a result of
classroom observations, action plans are developed to share findings
with staff and to support their professional growth.
To strengthen the role of families as the primary educator of their
children, we have developed a monthly checklist using materials
traditionally found in the homes that support the content of the Child
Observation Record (COR). In addition, backpacks are sent home on a
regular basis with materials, parental strategies and extensions that
can support the development of critical concepts when that child is
away from school.
We began a researched-based pilot project this school year when we
initiated the Breakthrough to Literacy model in five of our Head Start
classrooms. This plan incorporates teacher and child directed
activities that provide a balance of experiences in vocabulary,
alphabet knowledge, word recognition, and phonological awareness.
Components include small group reading and writing experiences,
independent reading and writing, daily writing, book of the week, take
me home books, and a software curriculum. A research team from Abt
Associates is conducting the on-going evaluation of the pilot project.
Although we realize that there are additional national accrediting
bodies, we have 17 centers that are accredited through the National
Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). There are an
additional five centers that are in the self-study process. In this
design, we are able to document the relationship between the quality
that accreditation demands and positive child outcomes.
In our state funded classrooms, we conduct additional assessments
of children using the Get it, Got it, Go screening tool. This system,
mandated through the Ohio Department of Education (ODE), measures
vocabulary, rhyming, and alliteration through a series of picture cards
presented to each child in a one-on-one setting.
In the fall of 2004, we completed almost 1,300 assessments using
the National Reporting System (NRS). The results of this national
effort allow us to review our agency's progress compared to national
averages in the domains of language, literacy, and math.
This school year, the Miami Valley Child Development Centers, Inc.
has implemented High/Scope's Child Observation Record (COR) in all of
our state and federal classrooms including our Home Base option. The
COR categories have been aligned to the Federal Domains and Elements as
well as the Early Learning Content Standards developed by the Ohio
Department of Education (ODE). Teachers make on-going observations
using a paper version of the COR. This information is then transposed
into the COR-PC software. COR data are collected on October 29, 2004,
February 25, 2005 and May 13, 2005. In addition, data are collected on
June 30, 2005 in our year-round sites. The data are maintained in
multiple databases that allow us to filter information by county,
program option, and age. Statistics are applied to the High/Scope
software called the Outcomes Reporter. Reports indicating progress in
COR categories, Federal Domains and required elements are then made
available to stakeholders for further analysis and discussion.
Children's progress is also evaluated by using an individual
portfolio system. Throughout the school year, children's experiences
with writing, alphabetic principles and counting are captured through
anecdotal notes, work sampling and photography. Along with results from
our more formal child assessment system, these concrete images of
progress are shared with parents during home visits and parent/teacher
conferences.
Miami Valley Child Development Centers does not look through one
lens. Our system of assessing child outcomes and program quality is
comprehensive in its approach. Just as a strong financial system
requires checks and balances, program quality and child outcomes must
also have such a system.
[An attachment to Mr. Siegfried's statement follows:]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T0629.009
------
Chairman Castle. Thank you, Mr. Marker, thank you, Mr.
Siegfried. We appreciate your testimony.
Ms. Mainster, it's your turn.
STATEMENT OF BARBARA MAINSTER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, REDLANDS
CHRISTIAN MIGRANT ASSOCIATION, IMMOKALEE, FL
Ms. Mainster. Thank you, Chairman Castle, Ranking Member
Woolsey, and others for having this hearing. We appreciate and
are all very honored to be part of this exemplary group.
I wrote testimony, submitted it. It would take me 16
minutes to read, so I'm not doing that. I'm going to just cover
some key points. I'm going to tell why there is a Migrant and
Seasonal Head Start program. I'm going to tell you a little bit
about the services. I'm going to tell you about the importance
of collaboration, and I'm going to close with some resource
issues.
First of all, my agency, the Redlands Christian Migrant
Association, is a large agency. We've got about a $47 million
budget. We serve 6,200 children. We have funding that is like
quilting. We're a Head Start grantee, but I am speaking to you
today as a migrant Head Start delegate agency under East Coast
Migrant Head Start Project.
The characteristics of our program I think that make us
exemplary is that we have committed, well trained staff we hire
from the communities we serve. Our staff are bilingual. They
can communicate with the parents well, which is critically
important when two-thirds of the children you're serving are
infants and toddlers.
We have very strong parent involvement. We have a board
that understands its role and takes it seriously and is well
informed, and we have infrastructure that support the staff
both fiscally and programmatically. And we use technology
appropriately. Since we're in rural counties, we really don't
have much choice.
Let me just talk about Migrant and Seasonal Head Start. In
1969, you in Congress, those of you who might have been here
then, saw the wisdom of a program--nobody up there is that old,
I know--saw the wisdom of setting aside a separate bit of money
and recognizing that the migrant and seasonal kids were never
going to get served in regular Head Start programs for the
simple fact that they travel.
Florida, Texas, and California are home-based states.
That's where the family spends six to 7 months of the year
working in the crops in those states. Then they travel and go
up north. We gave you a map with colors so you could see it,
and I was happy to see where most of you are from, because they
go to your states. Our families go to South Carolina, North
Carolina, Georgia, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, New York, and
many go Ohio and Michigan.
When they're in Florida, they're picking oranges, tomatoes,
strawberries, peppers, squash, cucumbers, et cetera. They do
the same things up north with the exception of the oranges,
which become cherries and apples when you go north of the
Mason-Dixon line; and peaches.
If Congress had not set aside a special program for
migrants, they would never get served, because they go to rural
areas, and when they get to rural areas, the Head Start
programs and child care programs are full. They follow the
weather.
The services that are different is that our centers are
open from six in the morning till six in the evening usually.
We serve--and the dates vary, because depending upon the crops,
you may have to open earlier because the families are back, or
you may open later. You have to be a very flexible program to
handle this money and to handle the services properly.
We serve babies through 4-year-olds, and our parent
involvement has a lot of ESOL, teaching English as well as
adult literacy in it. I want to just tell you one quick story.
One of our children, his name is Rosember, came to us. His mom
is from Guatemala. She spoke Kanjoval in that country. She's
totally illiterate, but Kanjoval is a dialect. She learned
enough Spanish to get by. So when Rosember came to us, staff
thought he was a little delayed. He wasn't delayed. He simply
had Kanjoval and Spanish in his head. Then he came to us and he
also heard English. So his computer just needed some time to
catch up in his brain.
And I want you to know that at the end--we also have
charter schools, so he had the good fortune to go from our
migrant Head Start program into our charter schools, passed his
third grade FCAT with a three, which is a very good score, and
his mom is now attending adult literacy at night and has
learned to read and write, and Rosember is her tutor.
So that's the kind of thing we get to do, which is why we
love our programs.
Our collaborations are critical. In rural areas, you either
collaborate or die. We have wonderful collaborations with
Agriculture. Most Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs do.
We collaborate with our state child care. The quilting allows
us--our state has set aside a pot of money actually for
seasonal farm workers out of their child care allocation, which
I believe we're the only state to do that. And health services,
of course, the Governors Literacy Council and the Mexican
consulate are all our partners.
The resource issue that I want you to look at is that we
are only serving about 19 percent of the children who are
eligible. We are funded out of a 13 percent set-aside in HHS.
We would really appreciate it if--Congressman Grijalva, thank
you for your work last year. Also tell your colleague, Senor
Hinojosa and Mr. Ehlers, we appreciated their work. But we now
need to tie down, and we'd like a 5 percent set-aside so that
we can count on having some programs that don't have to worry
about funding every year.
We also are concerned about some flexibility in standards,
particularly for short-term programs up north in terms of
getting everything done, if you're only running a 3-month
program, you're kind of asking people to fail.
I want to thank you, Congressman Castle, for going to our
program last year. I understand you enjoyed seeing brain
development in action with those toddlers. We appreciate very
much your time in doing that, and we appreciate the Committee's
time in inviting us here today.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Mainster follows:]
Statement of Barbara Mainster, Executive Director, Redlands Christian
Migrant Association, Immokalee, FL
Thank you Chairman Castle, Ranking Member Woolsey and honorable
members of the Education Reform Subcommittee for the opportunity to
submit testimony and contribute to this hearing on Head Start as you
begin the reauthorization process.
While I administer a range of Head Start and education programs--my
comments this morning will focus on the unique challenges faced by
Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Programs and how we have overcome them
in order to deliver critical education and child development programs
and services to some of the most vulnerable children in our country--
children of migrant and seasonal farm workers.
Why Migrant Head Start?
Migrant and Seasonal Head Start was started in 1969 as a direct
response to the unique seasonal needs of migrant farm worker families--
to ensure that these families and their children can enjoy the same
advantages made available to other low income children through Head
Start as they move across the country with their families to pursue
their work.
Most migrant workers stay in Florida, Texas or California, called
home base states, from October/November until May/June. Then they leave
to find work moving north. When cold weather sets in there, they come
back to their home base. A map is attached which gives a view of the
most common migrant streams.
To illustrate, one of our families, Daniel Jaime, works in the
oranges in Florida, then goes to Ohio to work in the cucumbers and on
to Michigan to work in cherries, before returning to Florida in October
or November, depending on the weather and availability of work in both
states. His children are served in one of our Migrant Head Start
Centers in Polk County, and when he leaves us, he takes their records
containing their educational outcome data, and health data with him.
When he arrives in Ohio, the Texas Migrant Council Center he attends
there picks up where we stopped and continues the services without
unnecessary duplication. A web based data transfer system is being
piloted right now and will make even more data available faster in the
near future.
Ideally, MSHS programs would provide seamless Head Start services
to eligible families as they move from state to state to ensure that
migrant children are given the same advantages that children attending
regular Head Start enjoy. This is what MSHS programs strive for because
we know that conventional child care is not available to these families
and for the most part regular Head Start is unable to address the
particular needs of these families.
In most states, local childcare resources are not available at the
times when migrants come into a community, especially for infants and
toddlers. Regular Head Start centers recruit for the fall in the
preceding spring and usually follow a school calendar. Rural areas in
our country all suffer from lack of resources and facilities, and of
course, the migrants all work in rural areas. When child care centers
are not available, parents have no choice, but to take the children to
the fields where they are exposed to pesticides, hazardous equipment,
extreme heat and other health dangers. This is not acceptable to
agricultural businesses, or to child advocates. In addition, the
primary language spoken by most farm workers is Spanish, and programs
need to have bilingual staff available in order to be able to
communicate. Services need to be available from 6 am until 6 pm, and
sometimes on Saturdays, in order to provide care for the hours both mom
and dad are working. Like the immigrants before them, the migrant
families believe in hard work and have strong family values. They
participate in opportunities to better their own education, learn
English and how to help their children be successful in our public
schools.
MSHS programs respond effectively to these challenges. We are
grateful Congress recognized the need for a Migrant Program Branch in
Washington to address the mobility issues and other unique needs of
this special population.
Background on RCMA
Since 1965 Redlands Christian Migrant Association has provided
quality child care for migrant and rural poor children throughout the
State of Florida. RCMA began in the Redlands area of Dade County where
a group of Mennonites provided care for farm worker children, so they
would not be taken to the fields. Today we serve over 6200 children in
seventy programs including 1704 in the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start
Program, 343 in Early Head Start and 952 in Regional Head Start. An
enrollment report showing all the children served in our centers/
schools on February 5, 2005 is attached to this testimony. The
information is broken down by county and funding source and documents
the waiting list of 2078 children in need of services. You will note we
serve children with many different funding sources, rather like a
patchwork quilt, designed to ensure that as many as possible of the low
income children who live in the communities can qualify for services.
RCMA grew as a result of needs expressed to us by migrant parents, by
farmers, by school districts, by church groups and by our State child
welfare agency.
In addition to being an Early Head Start and Head Start Grantee,
RCMA is a delegate agency of East Coast Migrant Head Start. East Coast
Migrant Head Start, along with 25 other grantees, serve nearly 32,000
migrant children and 2,500 seasonal farm worker children annually,
operating in 39 states in every region of the country. As you may know,
Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs were the first Head Start
programs to serve infants and toddlers. Today, two-thirds of the
children in the program are infants and toddlers.
In Florida, we serve farm workers who spend the fall, winter and
spring harvesting our nation's citrus crops, strawberries, tomatoes,
squash, peppers, cucumbers, corn, celery, radishes, melons, eggplant,
cauliflower and many other vegetables. They leave us after the harvest
and go to Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware,
Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana to do
the same jobs, with apples, peaches and cherries substituting for
oranges. It is hard work and requires special skills. Most farmworker
families earn less than $10,000/year and very few have health benefits,
according to a study submitted to Congress in 2000 by the United States
Department of Labor.
RCMA as a Collaboration Model in Community Partnerships
When a program operates in rural areas, collaboration is not only
necessary, it is expected. I would point to the partnerships that we
have forged with governments, private industry and others to be at the
core of our success.
RCMA has been extremely successful in forging a partnership with
agriculture. Long ago we realized that the agricultural employer and
farm worker had more in common than not. For example, both farmers and
their workers agree on the need for child care, health services,
housing, and pesticide training. As a result, RCMA has received support
in the form of buildings for child care centers, land on which to
build, monetary support to draw down matching federal dollars, and
advocacy with the State Legislature, resulting in a State child care
set aside for children of farm workers. Other important partners
include the school systems in the twenty counties in which RCMA
operates. We work together to prepare children for a successful
kindergarten transition, help with the enrollment process and
orientation of parents, and jointly serve preschool children with
disabilities. They, too, have supplied facilities in which to operate
our Head Start programs. Local health centers and public health
departments work with us to assure medical services and refer children
for our services. Of special importance are the 0 to three year olds,
who benefit tremendously from the early intervention we are able to
provide. Therapies are provided in our centers. In return, the agencies
know they can count on our staff to help translate or transport special
cases for critical care. It is a win/win situation. The local Early
Learning Coalitions in our state are now working with us to ensure that
migrant children will be served in the Voluntary Pre K program
beginning this year. In order to meet the mandated number of UPK hours,
our centers will adapt our curriculum as needed. Funding received from
the state for these four year olds will allow us to serve more infants,
toddlers and three year old children in our Head Start centers.
Churches are also active partners with us. They help provide the
emergency food needed when families arrive with little money, or when
weather does not permit families to work, such as during our recent
hurricane season. The Governor's Family Literacy Initiative and the
Mexican Consulate are very important collaborators in helping us
provide family literacy programs in our centers. Funding, software,
materials and guidance are all part of those relationships. In return,
our centers are available on weekends for programs or services the
Consulates may wish to bring to the rural communities.
RCMA as a Leader in the Field
I credit our high quality services and solid track record to our
philosophy and practice of bringing farmers and farm workers together
on our Board, along with experts in early childhood, health, business,
banking, the law, and housing.
Included in RCMA's philosophy is that we hire from the communities
served. Staff who know what it is to stoop and pick crops, to travel in
search of work, to start school late each fall and leave early every
spring--those are the people in charge. They ensure our programs are
comprehensive in nature, prepare children to succeed in school and meet
the needs of the families we serve. RCMA provides on going training and
educational opportunities to help ensure their continued success. We
are committed to finding and maintaining the most qualified staff and
in rural areas, this is one of our most serious challenges. The length
of the time they are employed each year further exacerbates the
problem. To compensate, we have adapted a model with one early
childhood professional per center, who then trains the paraprofessional
staff on an ongoing basis. In addition, our benefits structure is
designed to continue health insurance during the period of lay off,
which can be up to five months long each year. Collaborations with
community colleges to bring classes closer to the communities we serve
is beginning to yield results. Of most importance are the outcomes we
are achieving, in spite of the lack of degreed teachers. Attached to
this testimony is data on our results.
Former farm workers become leaders in their communities and strong
role models for families. Since they are trusted and respected by our
families, they have the ability to create and instill an awareness of
the importance of education, both for the children and for their
parents. Head Start has long recognized that unless very low income
families were helped to change and develop new skills, and raise their
own literacy levels, that long term gains for the children would not be
sustained. The importance of reading to their children and for their
own education is key. Children live in families, and unless parents are
sold on the importance of being an advocate for their children as they
go through school, expecting high achievement from their youngsters,
then many of the gains will be lost.
Former farm workers are found at all levels of our organization.
They are paired with professionals to form teams which have experience
and expertise in early childhood, health, and social work. Each of
RCMA's sixteen individual geographical areas around the state is led by
a former farm worker staff, some of whom have achieved degrees.
In addition, we embrace high quality early childhood and expect all
our centers to become accredited by the National Association for the
Education of Young Children. At the present time, 76% of all our
centers have attained that recognized seal of excellence. High quality
and comprehensive services with the involvement of parents is what RCMA
believes Head Start is all about and that is what we continue to
practice.
Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Challenges
Despite our best efforts to collaborate and stretch current
resources, we still maintain waiting lists for services and hundreds of
children in many parts of the country go unserved.
In fact, families that leave our program in Florida and migrate up
north to states like North Carolina, Alabama, Indiana and Ohio often
return in the fall and share with me that their children's names sat on
a waiting list all summer. Based on a 2001 Head Start Study,
(Descriptive Study of Seasonal Farmworker Families--September 2001)
which was requested as part of the last Head Start Reauthorization bill
(Coats Human Services Amendments of 1998 P.L. 105-285), only 19% of the
eligible migrant and seasonal children in our country were being
served.
Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs are funded along with
Indian Head Start, children with disabilities, technical assistance,
program review, and research demonstration out of a 13 percent
statutory set-aside from the annual Head Start Appropriation.
Existing MSHS programs maintain significant wait lists and, in many
areas of the country, there are no MSHS programs in operation to
provide services to migrant farm worker children when they move into a
state. Despite the documented unmet needs of this population, funding
for Migrant and Seasonal Head Start as a percentage of the overall Head
Start appropriation has not grown--in fact, according to our
calculations, it has been reduced slightly since 2003. I have attached
a chart to my testimony which shows MSHS funding as a percentage of the
overall Head Start appropriation.
We urge the Committee to look at ways by which additional resources
can be directed to meet the needs of migrant and seasonal children that
are currently unable to move off wait lists and access services to keep
them out of the field and give them the important step up that Head
Start can provide.
The National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association, of which
I am a member, put forward what we thought was a modest proposal during
the last reauthorization debate--that a funding floor of not less than
5% of the total annual Head Start appropriation be set-aside for MSHS.
According to the calculations used in the 2001 HHS study, this would
enable us to serve about 25% of the eligible migrant and seasonal
children.
While I want to thank several members of this Committee for their
work to bring more attention to this issue- particularly Congressmen
Hinojosa, Grijalva and Ehlers-we still find ourselves well short of the
resources needed to properly serve these children.
I urge this Committee to address this resource issue again as you
consider reauthorizing the underlying Head Start Statute and I request
you put in place a funding mechanism whereby we can be assured that
additional resources will be directed to address the documented needs
of MSHS programs. I would be happy to work with you and your staff in
this effort.
Closing
I'd like to close by sharing just one success story as a way to
illustrate how our Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs impact the
lives of children and parents served. Many of our former parents and
children are now staff. One is a woman who came to us as a migrant farm
worker, high school dropout, married and the mother of three
rambunctious children. She was active in the Center's activities,
served on the Policy Committee and Council, and then, when her children
went on to school, joined our staff. While working full time and
raising three children, she attained a GED, and then her two year and
four year degrees. She and her husband own a nice home, and her three
children are all in college at this time. She is now RCMA's Migrant
Head Start Manager, responsible for ensuring all the contractual and
performance standards are met for the 1704 migrant children entrusted
to our care.
I understand, Chairman Castle, that you visited a Migrant Head
Start Center last year and have experienced first hand how clear brain
development becomes when observing a happy toddler. Thank you for
taking that time and for the opportunity all of you have provided for
us to be here today.
[Attachments to Ms. Mainster's statement follow:]
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Chairman Castle. Well, thank you. And we appreciate you
being here, Ms. Mainster, and your testimony here today.
Ms. Cunningham?
STATEMENT OF GAYLE CUNNINGHAM, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, JEFFERSON
COUNTY COMMITTEE FOR ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY CHILD DEVELOPMENT
SERVICES, BIRMINGHAM, AL
Ms. Cunningham. Good morning. Chairman Castle,
Congresswoman Woolsey, and distinguished Members of the
Committee, it is an honor to be here. And I thank you for this
opportunity to share about our program. We serve 1,431 Head
Start children and 148 pregnant women, infants, and toddlers in
Early Head Start.
Head Start is more than a Federal program. It's more than
the best thing that this nation does for its neediest children.
For many children and families, Head Start is a lifeline.
Sadly, we have a 650-child waiting list for our Early Head
Start program, and more than 1,900 children are on the waiting
list for our Head Start program.
In addition to these Head Start-eligible children, more
affluent parents regularly ask us if they can pay for their
child to participate in our great Head Start program.
We promote excellence by meeting and exceeding Head Start
performance standards and using the Head Start Child Outcomes
Framework to guide our teaching and other services, by
providing staff with continuing educational and career
development opportunities to improve their knowledge and
skills, and by creating collaborations with many agencies to
address the wide range of needs faced by our Head Start
families and children.
The Head Start performance standards, together with the
Child Outcomes Framework, assure that our program staff attend
to each area of children's development, support family
development and provide optimal program management and
accountability.
Our planning and quality improvement process uses the Head
Start performance standards as its base. The Child Outcomes
Framework helps us to use the most appropriate observation and
assessment procedures and instruments. The data from these
assessments helps us to make adjustments in our curriculum and
daily schedule, to plan in-service teacher training, and to
make purchase decisions for classroom curriculum resources. The
framework has helped us to make our teaching and other work
with children more intentional to better achieve Head Start's
child outcome goals.
We are committed to career development for our staff.
Eighty-four percent of our teachers have associate degrees or
higher. As staff members have obtained higher credentials, we
could pay for their training, increase compensation and
maintain the teaching staff that we have invested in, with the
Head Start quality dollars that sadly no longer come to us.
Degrees are important, but ongoing professional development
is also key. Based on the large body of research on effective
teaching practices and curricula, we have developed a unique
system of supports for classrooms and teachers that includes
education specialists assigned to each cluster of centers to
provide day-to-day staff development and assistance with
planning; a program-wide, theme-based curriculum with
accompanying theme boxes of resource materials; a resource
center where staff can obtain and prepare materials for their
classrooms, for teaching and for their college coursework; and
a cadre of ``mentor teachers'' who provide peer support.
Ensuring that children receive services and not just
referrals is another key to school readiness. Each child is
assisted to have a medical home, a provider that they can go to
regularly for checkups and illnesses. We help parents to take
care of any health needs their children may have while they're
in Head Start, and we also provide dental and visual screening
and help children get dental services or glasses.
We also identify mental health problems and provide
assistance to parents and teachers to address them. We have
extensive collaborations with a wide range of medical, dental,
psychological and social services providers. And we have
assistance from the local school systems to provide special
services to children with disabilities and their families.
We help parents to learn parenting skills to better support
their children's learning and development, to learn more about
resources in their communities, and to participate as advocates
for their children, families and neighborhoods. For eleven
years, we have provided special programming for fathers,
encouraging them to play a strong role in their children's
lives both at home and at our centers.
A growing number of grandparents are raising our children.
Several years ago we began a support group for them that
provides monthly sessions on a range of topics, occasional
outings and individual assistance. Because most of our parents
work, we provide before and after school care, and Head Start
quality enhancement funding enabled us several years ago to add
Summer Head Start for those children.
We collaborate with public schools to ensure that children
are ready for kindergarten and that they and their families
experience smooth transitions into Head Start. And we've worked
with those schools to determine their expectations for
kindergarten and to arrange our curriculum and in-service
training for teachers so that children are better prepared for
later schooling.
Thirteen of our Head Start classrooms are located in public
schools in seven different public school systems, and most of
our classrooms are located in buildings donated by either
school systems or Catholic parishes.
All of the services I've described are also provided to
Early Head Start infants, toddlers and pregnant women, but we
have six children waiting for every slot that we have in Early
Head Start.
So how do we know that we're successful? The data we
collect as we assess our children tells us that our children
are making huge strides. Kindergarten teachers who receive our
Head Start children tell us that they are better prepared for
school than almost any others in their classes. Principals and
superintendents ask us to add classrooms to their schools and
systems. And we regularly hear from parents that their Head
Start graduate children are on honor rolls, winning awards,
graduating from high school, going to college and to graduate
school and contributing to our communities and to society.
A local Birmingham bank vice president is a Head Start
graduate, as are two local city councilmen. Head Start truly is
our national child development laboratory, and it deserves far
more credit for all that it has contributed to the large field
of early childhood education. We at JCCEO take that title
seriously, and we seek in all that we do to find the most
effective ways to serve each child who comes to our program and
each family that brings them.
Head Start truly is our nation's best gift to our neediest
families. Our goal is to make sure that it is a gift that works
well and one that lasts.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Cunningham follows:]
Statment of Gayle Cunningham, Executive Director, Jefferson County
Committee for Economic Opportunity Child Development Services,
Birmingham, AL
Mr. Chairman Castle, Congresswoman Woolsey, and distinguished
members of the committee. Head Start is very, very special. For many of
the children and families that I have worked with in Head Start, it is
more than a federal program, more than the best thing this nation does
for its neediest children: for many children and families it is a
lifeline.
Let me share with you an email that I received just last Sunday.
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Melissa Johnson, my son is Christian Tyler Johnson.
He attends Tarrant Head Start center. I am writing to let you
at the main office know of the OUTSTANDING and WONDERFUL
teachers and staff you have. Not only has my son enjoyed his
two years at Head Start but he is excited and most of all ready
for Kindergarten. Everyday he comes home with something new
that he has learned.
Not only has my child grown and matured from the program but so
have I. I had him when I was sixteen so I thought the teachers
would teach him. They have done a great deal but they showed me
that the learning has to start from the home.
I apologize for the lengthy letter I just love the Head Start
program, and I wanted to THANK everyone involved. I know you
have lots of work to do so thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Melissa J. Johnson
We know there are many similar stories in every one of your
districts, in every Head Start and Early Head Start program across this
country.
My name is Gayle Cunningham and I appreciate and am honored to have
this opportunity to testify before you today. It was my privilege to be
the director of the Head Start program at JCCEO in Jefferson County,
Alabama, where the largest city is Birmingham, for eighteen years, from
1986 until 2004. Since 1990, I have also served as Executive Director
of JCCEO, the Jefferson County Committee for Economic Opportunity, the
Community Action Agency for our county. Our Head Start-Early Head Start
program serves 1431 preschoolers, and 148 pregnant women, infants, and
toddlers.
To meet our goal of providing the best possible Head Start for the
children and families that we serve, we have worked on every aspect of
the program, and our efforts, a true collaboration between our agency
Board, our staff, our parents, our community, and the Region IV and
Bureau Head Start staff, have resulted in a highly functioning program
that seeks higher and higher levels of quality programming for children
and for families.
Excellence is our goal. Excellence in supporting and promoting
children's development and learning; excellence in our staff and our
services; and excellence in supporting families to be successful. So
how do we strive for excellence?
Meeting Standards:
The Head Start Performance Standards have been our foundation and
they were critical to improving our program. The Head Start Performance
Standards are comprehensive and therefore ensure that we look at all of
the conditions that support children's learning, their social,
emotional and physical development, and family success.
Our internal, yearly, quality improvement and planning process uses
the Head Start Program Standards as its base. The Standards are used
for a program-wide self-assessment at the beginning of each calendar
year. The findings from this assessment are submitted to ``Program
Quality Improvement Workgroups'' that include staff, policy council
members and other parents, board members, and community
representatives. Each workgroup focuses on a different program service
area, and reviews all program documentation related to that area. The
workgroup's recommendations for improvements then go to the management
team for deliberation, and the accepted recommendations are implemented
during the next program year.
Tri-annually there is an in-depth review of our program, and every
Head Start program, by a Federal monitoring team, using an instrument
based on the Head Start Performance Standards. We believe that these
reviews, in combination with our yearly self-evaluations, are an
important factor in maintaining ongoing program quality.
Head Start's Child Outcomes Framework has proven an invaluable tool
for improving the quality of our classroom services to children. It is
comprehensive, multidimensional, and appropriate for young children,
focusing on the whole child. It has provided the framework for a
multitude of decisions that have improved our program for children. We
used it to help us determine, and create, the most appropriate
observation and assessment procedures and instruments for our children.
The data from these assessments have been used to help us make
adjustments in our curriculum and daily schedule, plan in-service
teacher training, and make purchase decisions for curriculum
enhancements for our classrooms, such as additional math materials. The
Framework has helped us to make our teaching and other work with
children more intentional, so that we can better achieve Head Start's
child outcomes goals.
Staff and Teacher Quality:
We know that the knowledge and skills of our directors, service
area managers, teachers, and all of our staff are critical to our
success. That is why we are committed to career development for all of
our staff, finding and providing opportunities for both education and
in-service training, with a special commitment to teachers and teaching
after all, that is where our children are.
In 1986, we had nine Child Development Associate credentialed
staff, mostly in management, and no other appropriate credentials among
our teaching staff. Today, 84.62% of our teachers (66) have an
Associate's degree or higher. Most began with us with no credentials
and, through Head Start, were able to earn their CDA credential, and
then we assisted them to build upon it to earn their Associate's
degree. Six more of our teachers will have earned their Associate's
degrees by August, 2005.
Eight-nine (89) of our teacher aides have Child Development
Associate credentials, which we consider the basic credential for
working in the classroom and the first step towards the Associate's and
Bachelor's degrees. We expect a teacher aide to begin working on
qualifying for the Child Development Associate as soon as possible
after beginning employment. Six teacher aides have Associate's degrees.
As staff members obtain higher credentials, increased compensation is
provided to reward and acknowledge achievement and increased skills,
and to maintain the teaching staff that we have invested in, again,
thanks to funding from Head Start.
How did we accomplish these career development goals? Primarily, it
was the receipt of Head Start quality enhancement funds over the years
that made it possible. With those funds, we could provide tuition and
book scholarships, provide release time and substitute teachers to
cover classrooms while teaching staff were in school, and increase
compensation once credentials were earned. On average, it has taken our
teachers six years to obtain their Associate's degree. Because we know
that better child outcomes are associated with higher degrees, we have
worked with others in the state, including the Alabama Head Start
Collaboration Office, to develop articulation arrangements to move our
teaching staff from the Associate's to the Bachelor's degree, and we
learned last week that such an opportunity will soon be available to us
with a local university. We don't, however, know how we will provide
the scholarships and other supports that will be needed to assist our
staff to earn Bachelor's degrees, or how we will adequately compensate
them once they have earned the BA. This is a worthy goal, but it would
require new, additional Head Start resources for teachers to go back to
school, for programs to provide release time and substitutes, and for
compensation increases that are at least comparable to those of
kindergarten teachers with similar degrees and experience so that our
teachers remain with us in Head Start.
Effective Teaching Support:
We believe that teachers need more support on a regular basis, in
addition to credentials and degrees. Ongoing quality professional
development is key. Based on the large body of research on effective
teaching practices and curricula, we have developed a unique system of
supports for classrooms and teachers that includes: Education
Specialists assigned to each cluster of centers to provide day-to-day
staff development and assistance with planning for teaching staff in a
role that is completely separate from supervision; A program-wide
theme-based curriculum with supporting theme boxes of materials that
rotate to provide an array of teaching resources to classrooms; A
resource center where staff can obtain and prepare materials for their
classrooms, for teaching, and for their college coursework; and a cadre
of ``mentor teachers'' who provide peer support to other teachers.
These mentor teachers were selected because they were effective in
their own classrooms, and they also demonstrated the capacity to work
well with and support other adults. They each attended an eight session
course on mentoring, participate in monthly mentor teacher training
sessions and meetings, work with a protege teacher, assist with
program-wide teacher training, and receive a monthly stipend for these
additional responsibilities.
Again, the importance of the comprehensive Head Start Program
Performance Standards and the Child Outcomes Framework must be
emphasized. These assure that in our service delivery and in our
training and support of staff, we attend to each area of a child's
development--because learning to read, and to count, do not occur in
isolation from a child's other areas of development, or in isolation
from their families.
A Community Program:
Head Start is unique because it provides an opportunity to lift
entire families and communities to better economic, educational, and
personal lives. We collaborate with a large network of public, private,
and faith-based community resource providers to help us meet the needs
of our participants. To improve our work with families, we used Head
Start Quality Enhancement funding to lower family services worker
caseloads to two-to-three classrooms each. This enables us to give each
family more attention and to help them with the wide range of issues
and needs that confront low-income families, especially when there is a
crisis. We have helped families get better and safer housing, in
several instances helping them to purchase homes through Habitat for
Humanity; we have helped families that have been evicted or burned out,
helping them to find temporary and then permanent housing; we have
helped families when they or their children have medical emergencies;
and much, much more.
We help families to assess their current situations, set goals, and
take concrete steps to achieve them, be they more schooling, job
training, better jobs, better housing, or more food in the house. Self-
sufficiency is our goal for every family that we work with. School
readiness, especially for the low-income children in Head Start, is
about letters and numbers and colors and shapes, but it also includes
so much more. We assure that each child has a medical home-a provider
that they go to regularly for check-ups and for illnesses, and we
assist parents to take care of any health or medical needs they might
have while they are in Head Start. We provide dental and visual
screening and then assist parents to obtain any needed dental services
or glasses. We identify mental health problems and provide assistance
to help parents and teachers address them. Our extensive collaborations
with a wide range of medical, dental, psychological, and social
services providers enable us to address these needs. And, with
assistance from local school systems, we provide special services to
children with disabilities and their families, making at least ten
percent of our enrollment opportunities available to them.
We also assist parents to learn parenting skills, to better support
their children's learning, to learn more about resources available in
their communities, and to participate in their communities as citizens
and advocates for their children, families, and neighborhoods. We
provide special programming for our children's fathers, encouraging
them to play a strong and effective role in their children's lives,
both at home and as volunteers in our classrooms and centers. We call
our father involvement project ``CHIEFS'' and it is now in its eleventh
year.
In response to the growing number of grandparents raising young
children in our program, we began a support group for grandparents
several years ago, named ``GEMS'', that provides monthly sessions on a
wide range of useful topics, occasional field trips, and individual
assistance when needed. Grandparents raising young children are a
growing phenomena in our communities, and their needs are unique and
sometimes difficult to address through regular Head Start resources.
Most of our parents work, and it is sometimes a challenge to make
arrangements to bring their children to our centers after 7:30 a.m., or
pick to them up when our program day ends at three. So we assist them
by providing before and/or after program care for approximately 200
children through a collaboration for vouchers with our local childcare
(block grant) subsidy provider, along with private payments by parents
not able to obtain vouchers. (The waiting list for vouchers in
Jefferson County is 3000 children long.) Several years ago Head Start
quality enhancement funding enabled us to add ``Summer Head Start'' for
the children who participate in after school care to our program, so
this group continues with us until August, receiving a full day of
learning and care while their parents work.
Public schools are an important part of our families'' communities,
and we collaborate with them in a variety of ways to assure that our
children are ready for kindergarten and that they and their families
experience a smooth transition from Head Start. We have worked with
public school systems to determine their expectations for children
entering kindergarten and arranged our curriculum and in-service
training for teachers to both prepare children for kindergarten and
beyond, and to provide appropriate pre-school education. Thirteen of
our Head Start classrooms are located in public schools in seven
different school systems. Most of our other classrooms are located in
school buildings no longer in use by the systems or by Catholic
parishes, and provided to our program at no cost. We have a special
partnership with the Birmingham Public School System, equally sharing
three pre-k classrooms for a Head Start-Pre-K partnership. Most of our
disabilities screenings and services are provided by our partner school
systems. And each participates in a variety of transition activities
for children and parents as the end of the program year approaches.
All of the services that I have described are also provided to our
Early Head Start infants, toddlers, pregnant women, and their families,
with particular attention to the special needs of pregnant women and
babies. The need for infant-toddler care and learning opportunities in
our community is acute, and our small program, serving about 100 babies
and toddlers, meets only a fraction of the need. There are more than
six children on our waiting list for every Early Head Start slot that
we are funded to provide.
How Do We Know We are Successful?
So how do we know that all of this works? There are many ways. The
demand for our program is enormous. In addition to the more than 650
child waiting list for Early Head Start, there are more than 1900
children on our waiting list for Head Start. In addition to these Head
Start eligible children, more affluent parents regularly ask us if they
can pay for their child to participate in our Head Start program.
Kindergarten teachers who receive our Head Start children tell us
that they are better prepared for school than most others in their
classes, and principals and superintendents ask us to add classrooms to
their schools and systems. We have had a classroom in one local system
for two years and the superintendent recently met with our Head Start
director to tell her what a difference the school staff sees in the
children who have attended Head Start. He wants another classroom.
We regularly hear from parents that their children are on honor
rolls, winning awards, graduating from high school, going to college,
going to graduate school, and contributing to our communities and to
society. A local bank vice president is a Head Start graduate. Two
local city councilmen are, too. And another graduate of our program has
earned his Ph.D. and is the director of a local Head Start program and
the childcare subsidy program that serves our area.
The data that we collect as we assess our children at the
beginning, middle, and end of each program year also tells us that we
are successful. Our children make huge strides while they are with us,
and our Child Outcomes data documents and verifies this, as do our own
observations when we visit our wonderful classrooms.
Our program has participated in a number of local and national
research and evaluation projects, always seeking to both benefit by
learning more about our program's effectiveness and to contribute to
the body of knowledge about what works best for Head Start, young
children, and their families. With every measurement we learn that our
program is making a significant difference as we work with our Head
Start children and families, the children and their families in
Birmingham and Jefferson County, Alabama, who are most in need.
Head Start truly is our National Child Development Laboratory, and
the program deserves much more credit for all that it has contributed
to the larger field of early care and education. We at JCCEO take that
title seriously, and seek in all that we do to find the most effective
ways to serve each child who comes to our program, and each family that
brings that child to us. Head Start truly is our nation's best gift to
our neediest families. Our goal is to make sure that it is a gift that
works well, and one that lasts.
______
Chairman Castle. Thank you very much, Ms. Cunningham.
Before we go forward, I don't know if there's any Member here--
we're going to have a motion to adjourn on the floor. We're all
going to have to go vote in seven or eight or 9 minutes. Is
there anyone here who won't be able to come back, would like to
ask their questions now? Or do you want me just to go ahead and
start?
I'll go ahead and start, then. But if somebody needs to
finish before I leave, let me know.
Actually, my questions are too general for everybody to
answer everything. So you're going to have to sort of limit
yourself here, if you will, because I want to get in a few
things.
I'm worried about what we're doing here at the Federal
level. Let me congratulate each and every one of you, first of
all, you know, for running exemplary programs. You wouldn't
have been here if you hadn't been doing that. And you're doing
it within the framework of the law and the regulations in
dealing with HHS as far as this is concerned. A couple of you
used the expression ``quilting,'' I think, meaning you're
running a variety of programs, and that's generally true of
Head Start providers, which is fine.
But I want to sort of look at it from that point of view;
how we can run exemplary programs, and what is it in the law or
in the regulations that may in some cases restrict you or
perhaps allow some of the other problems which exist out there
that perhaps we could address as we take up our new
legislation, which is what we're doing.
So let me just start with that. As you know, we have the
basic law here. You probably deal mostly with the regulations,
if I had to guess, the administration of children and families
and the Head Start Bureau, and there's a series of performance
standards and forms you have to fill out and that kind of
thing, some of which--and frankly, we had an analysis of this,
and some of it was critical. And so I want to see how it is out
in the field.
So my question to you is, in doing what you're trying to
do--and you're doing everything from migrant programs to
combining it with school programs. You're doing a lot of things
in your different areas. My question is, is there anything in
the law or the restrictions that--and you can answer this
generally. You don't have to cite statute numbers or whatever--
that you think is a block to continuing progress in terms of
what you are doing? I know that's a very general question, and
I'm looking for specific answers, but I'm interested in that.
Any volunteers? Dr. Daeschner.
Dr. Daeschner. First of all, thank you. I think that is an
essential question. I'm different in that I run a district, and
I have like these 5,400 early childhood. And I satisfy lots of
different standards.
As an example, and most you just allude to it, there's
almost 1,700 standards connected with Head Start. And they're
very specific. I'm not too sure they're not specific for a
reason.
Our state has some like that, but they're somewhat
different. So when you work in a district, you're faced with
not necessarily competing, but how do you fit one and the other
and satisfy all those? Let me give you one good example, and I
alluded to it earlier. These child restraints. A great example
is I run all these buses. I have 850 buses that I run on a
three-tiered system. And they pick up my high school kids, it's
our elementary and then our preschool. And you can imagine we
have to use all the buses to do all that.
It's almost prohibitive to put these seat restraints on,
because it reduces my numbers. The buses are absolutely safe. I
have to follow the Kentucky bus regulations. And I will give
you one particular example. We had a month ago a car run into a
back of a bus. The car caught fire. By the way, the driver took
off. The front of the car caught fire underneath the bus. The
bus was consumed in about a minute and a half with smoke and
fire. Now, the good news is that there were high school kids on
that bus. But if I'd have had child restraint hooked up in
harnesses on that bus with preschool, I'm here to tell you, at
least half of those children would have died, because we
couldn't have got them out.
Chairman Castle. But in a more general sense. I don't know
if my question was too long or your answer is too long, but
between us, we've taken up almost all my time.
Dr. Daeschner. I'm sorry. That was my fault.
Chairman Castle. But I'd just like to follow up in way to
cut you off a little bit.
Dr. Daeschner. OK, sure.
Chairman Castle. I mean, but is that something that we can
address? I mean, that's one specific thing.
Dr. Daeschner. That is.
Chairman Castle. You're saying maybe we shouldn't have
those particular things. But in a more general sense--
Dr. Daeschner. Yes.
Chairman Castle [continuing]. Are you hindered by all these
various performance standards you have to live with, or do you
think they should be changed in some way or another, a whole
management model from the Federal Government?
Dr. Daeschner. I can answer that very quickly. It's a
management style. I believe we ought to, policy-wise, ought to
be adjusted to the most exemplary classrooms you have and not
to the lowest classrooms that we have. I as a manager need to
drive up my lowest classrooms that aren't performing well to
the highest standards. All standards, for example in Head
Start, are geared so that you just take one step forward, two
steps left, one step right. There's certainly a lot of those,
now, to go in there and give you specifics. But I would rather
have policies that adhere with the general so that all my
preschool kids can serve.
Chairman Castle. How about those of you who are working in
the so-called quilting effect in terms of your running multiple
programs? Ms. Cunningham obviously mentioned that, and Ms.
Mainster may have mentioned it, too. But I see that when I go
to my Head Start programs in Delaware. They're running a
variety of things, if you will.
What are we doing in Head Start that is either positive or
negative in the middle of that quilt in terms of what you are
doing that in some way inhibits us from developing these kids
as fully as we possibly could?
Ms. Mainster. If I may, I would just say that we use the
Head Start standards because we're one of your quilters, as
those that we try to get to with all our programs. The biggest
difference in our state child care, for example, in Head Start,
is that there's not funding there nor is there mandate for the
parent involvement and the comprehensive services in terms of
health and social services. I would not want to see those
reduced.
I think the idea of the specificity--in other words, we go
out and we look for United Way money, for example, to add to
our state child care money so that we can bring them to the
Head Start standard. When you're dealing with low income kids,
and Head Start founders recognized that this program is as much
for families as it is for children. Children live in families.
And so that's not a standard I want to see changed.
I do think that you have some language proposed about
shorter term programs need to have some flexibility in terms of
how they meet the standards. I think we need to look at
outcomes, and if a program is meeting the outcomes, be less
concerned about--specifically I'm talking about degrees in
terms of rural short-term programs, it's next to impossible,
and we're going to keep struggling with that. But if the
outcomes are being attained, I think that ought to be adequate.
Chairman Castle. OK. Thank you.
Ms. Cunningham?
Ms. Cunningham. I would argue against lots of changes in
the performance standards. They in fact have been an example
for other standard systems, licensing systems, accreditation
systems across the nation.
Chairman Castle. And you think they're positive, basically?
Ms. Cunningham. Oh, yes.
Ms. Mainster. I do, too.
Ms. Cunningham. Head Start's standards are looked up to,
and actually, efforts are made to find ways to help other child
care and pre-K systems begin to meet Head Start standards. We
really should continue to hold them up as the highest
standards, national standards available.
Chairman Castle. But the criticism--and I probably don't
have this quite right--but the criticism has sort of been that
while the standards are fine, they're sort of, I don't know,
self-dependent in terms of responding to the standards or
whatever, and that we don't get--``we,'' the government who
funds this--doesn't get all the information that it needs in
order to monitor fiscally and perhaps programmatically
correctly.
In other words, there's been some criticism of that from
the point of view of what the management team gets back, if you
will. You may not be--you're running a program, so you may not
be the one to answer that question. But we want to make this as
secure and as positive as possible, but we want to make sure
that we're eliminating things which are not essential and
overwork or whatever it may be.
Ms. Mainster. I just want to say, you're just now getting
the results of the NRS testing and so forth. I would hesitate
to say, until you've really had a chance to look at some of
those, you're finally getting some of the stuff you were
alluding to wanting.
Chairman Castle. Right. Good.
Ms. Cunningham. I think most of the information that you
reference is available. It's very available. It may not have
been looked at as critically in the past, as carefully in the
past, but it's there. And perhaps a stronger system of
interaction between regional offices and Head Start programs
could strengthen that system.
Chairman Castle. But to the extent that I'm criticizing, I
may be criticizing, what's happening at the regulatory end of
it, not at the Head Start end of it, as much or more than the
Head Start end of it, because I think there has been some
justifiable criticism. I'm just trying to see if there's
problems we can straighten out.
Let me yield to Mr. Grijalva.
Mr. Grijalva. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and let me join with
you in thanking our witnesses. It's very important and very
helpful information and testimony.
For the sake of time and to some extent my interest, let me
focus my questions to Ms. Mainster, if I could. You're running
an Early Start, Head Start, and a Migrant and Seasonal Head
Start. Briefly, what are the biggest differences and to some
extent challenges in coordinating--not only coordinating
between these programs?
Ms. Mainster. Thank you, Congressman. The biggest
difference I would say is the population, because obviously our
Migrant Head Start has to has flexible opening dates, so our
staff are frequently laid off for 5 months a year. So holding
onto that staff is always a challenge. But of course when you
quilt, you find ways to help them work in other programs if you
need to.
The clientele actually are easier. People don't realize
that. The migrant Head Start families are the easiest to work
with. Mom and dad both work, but mom and dad have hope, so--I
know this is not the kind of thing you may be asking, but those
are the families that are the true immigrants that are looking
at the American Dream, and they'll do anything they need to get
there.
So many of our early Head Start and Head Start families
have very little hope left, so we have to work with them in a
different way. I don't think standards-wise, obviously, if
you're only operating a short-term program, and again, we're
lucky in Florida. We operate about seven to 8 months. But the
short-term programs are being killed by trying to fit in, for
example, all of the various trainings that one must have or all
the various sessions parents must complete.
Mr. Grijalva. It goes to your point of flexibility.
Ms. Mainster. That's the point. And I believe there's some
language being looked at for some flexibility for short-term
programs. I would still want the outcomes, yes, sir.
Mr. Grijalva. Let me just follow up, because I--not just
because of the migrant and seasonal component and your good
work in that area, but you serve predominantly Spanish-speaking
families.
Ms. Mainster. Yes.
Mr. Grijalva. And just for the sake of the record and
others, what advice would you give to other Head Start centers
regardless of whether they're serving migrant and seasonal
families who face both the challenge, and quite frankly, the
reality of large populations of non-English-speaking kids and
families?
Ms. Mainster. Well, the very, very first piece of advice is
they must hire people from that community. They must hire
Spanish-speaking staff, Spanish-speaking staff who know the
cultures of the kids that are coming in and who will have the
respect of the families. That is critical.
Mr. Grijalva. And I think the last, aside from your point
in your testimony about the funding and the 19, we're only
serving 19 percent in migrant.
Ms. Mainster. Yes, sir.
Mr. Grijalva. And I think that's a very important point
that this Committee has dealt with and I hope deals with again
during the reauthorization. But both as it relates to general
and migrant and seasonal workers, what other kinds of
recommendations would you have aside from funding for this
Committee as we go through this reauthorization process?
Ms. Mainster. One of the things I think that we could
improve programs with is if each program had a seasonal-based
funding so that they could operate for the seasonals the year
round, then they could use key staff from that to operate their
migrant programs. That would have to be worked on to make sure
that the migrants don't ever lose the services. That would be--
Mr. Grijalva. I think that transition is very important,
and I--last point and question. How do you coordinate as you
follow--as the family leaves to follow their work?
Ms. Mainster. OK. We're actually piloting the promise,
which is the data web-based system, but the parents are still
the most important. The parents get a record with all their
children's scores in it on their assessments. They also get the
health data, and we let them know where the programs are. Those
that go to Ohio know exactly where they're going. Those that go
to Delaware, they know where their centers are. They go in. The
center can then pick up where we left off and keep going.
That's the idea.
The problems of course come where there is no room when
they get to where they're going. But right now the parents are
hand-carrying that record. The coordination is counting--is
really dependent upon the parent making it happen. The programs
of course all know each other and talk. There's only 25
grantees, so that helps.
Mr. Grijalva. Thank you very much.
Ms. Mainster. Thank you.
Mr. Grijalva. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman Castle. Thank you, Mr. Grijalva. Mrs. Biggert is
recognized for 5 minutes.
Mrs. Biggert. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I apologize for
coming in late, but I have to say that I have had a connection
with Head Start and the fact that I volunteered the first year
that it had opened in Chicago at Hull House and spent a summer
with the children there. So it's always been very dear to my
heart.
And I can remember--you were just mentioning about how
people have to be Spanish-speaking. And this of course was a
Spanish neighborhood and I spoke French and Latin poorly, but
still, it was something that--so I used to run home and turn on
Sesame Street to watch to see if I could pick up the language
in a very short time, which of course by the end of the summer,
there was quite a bit of communication.
But I remember then, and the thing about the culture was
that the lunches that were served were American food, and these
children didn't know what it was. And they used to just not eat
it. And finally I said, well, why don't we just, you know, do
something and bring in some food that they will eat, that is
their own, and that worked well.
But what I'd like to know is how many children are unable
to get into the Head Start program because there aren't enough
and where do they go in your areas?
Ms. Cunningham. In our county, we have a 1,900 child wait
list for our 1,431 child Head Start program, and another 658
children on our Early Head Start wait list. We have 148 slots
total 100 or so in centers. We have a huge wait list in
Alabama.
Mrs. Biggert. Has there ever been any movement to expand
it?
Ms. Cunningham. We've taken advantage of every expansion
opportunity that's come available. There have not been any
recently, but we actually have grown from serving 630 children
in 1986 to 1,431 now.
Mrs. Biggert. And you wouldn't say that it's diluted the
program at all?
Ms. Cunningham. What now?
Mrs. Biggert. It has not diluted the program?
Ms. Cunningham. Not at all, not at all, because with those
additional funds over the years have come the opportunities to
expand supports, expand space and provide everything that we
need for each child.
Ms. Mainster. I think the other answer is where are they,
those that are not in centers? They're with babysitters in not
very good settings. Our waiting list--and this was in our
packet, but just a snapshot on February 5th, we had 2,078
children on waiting lists, and we also had our data from last
year to this year. So we went--last year we were 5,837 kids
that we served, this year 6,242. So we're like, I think all the
exemplary programs must be very good at seeking out funds,
because we know that the kids need the services.
Mrs. Biggert. Mr. Marker?
Mr. Marker. In our program, we operate an Early Head Start
program and Head Start program, and obviously, since we only
have 110 slots for Early Head Start in a three-county area,
that's where our largest demand is right now. And we do
maintain a rather lengthy waiting list on that. I'm not aware
of the current number of it.
Head Start is a little bit different in Ohio. Until 4 years
ago, we had a very strong state Head Start program that had
adopted the Head Start program performance standards, which
made everything very fluid. We could work very easily. But
through budget problems, that's gone away, so those children
now are going to private child care, which is a good thing in
some cases. A larger and larger number every day are going to
the more unregulated care that's present in Ohio, and there's
no regulation, and it's really very scary.
And I think as--if we ever get to the point where we can
expand Head Start, that will make our three-county area much
better because there will be more opportunities to get those
children into a good environment that is safe.
Dr. Daeschner. We're rather unique in that--I'm going to
talk about a district we had in Head Start. But we basically,
I'm going to talk about children that qualify for free lunch.
What we serve is Head Start. When I run out of that, I go to
preschool. When I run of that, I got tuition-based. When I run
out of that, we have 90 percent of all the 4-year-olds that we
serve in Jefferson County in an all day, every day 4-year-old
program. I've got only about 30 percent of the 3-year-olds.
That translates into about 500 children that could take
advantage of these services. I have actually 300 on a qualified
waiting list, so.
But the way you do that is you combine all the funds that I
mentioned earlier into a program like we operate, so we can do
quite a bit with all that funding in a streamless situation.
Mrs. Biggert. Thank you for all that you do. I yield back.
Chairman Castle. Thank you, Ms. Biggert. Mr. Kind is
recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Kind. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I want to
first of all thank you for holding this very important hearing.
I know of your great interest and concern about reauthorization
of the Head Start program, and if and when we start moving
forward on a Committee basis, once again we'll look forward to
working with you in a bipartisan fashion to try to produce a
good reauthorized bill.
And I want to thank all the witnesses for being here and
bringing your particular expertise to the subject. This is an
incredibly important program for many of us, and I think you
all appreciate the significance of the Head Start program.
I mean, it's the most reviewed program at the Federal level
it seems, and yet it's also the most popular program when you
talk to the constituents and the families that it services. I
think the surveys that come back show a high 90 percent
satisfaction and approval rating from the parents who have
children in Head Start programs. So I think it really speaks
volumes in regard to the success the program has had in
preparing these children to close the achievement gap when it's
time for them to walk through that kindergarten door for the
very first time.
And that's why many of us are concerned in regard to some
of the more radical proposals being thrown out there by the
Administration in regards to block granting and the impact
that's going to have on access, on the quality of the
programming, on the accountability and the oversight of that
program too. And hopefully with your help, we can work through
that, because that's been one of the major stumbling blocks as
far as reauthorizing this program in the last session and
perhaps in this session as well. There's a difference of
opinion.
But from my perspective, one of the areas that I've been
concerned about is in regards to this rush for more testing of
children at an early age and the impact that's going to have on
them. In fact, I had offered an amendment in the reauthorized
bill last year that would allow that the National Research
Council of the National Academy of Sciences to do a
comprehensive study in regards to what would be the appropriate
measurements for children at this age so we don't end up doing
more harm than good just for the sake of testing.
And I think it's very important as we move forward with the
reauthorized bill that we do pay attention to the impact of
what new measurements and tests that we're going to be
requiring these children to undergo and whether it's the most
effective and scientifically based standards that we can hope
for. And I notice the Administration, even though we didn't
reauthorize the bill, nevertheless through an administrative
rule, went forward on a new National Reporting System that's
putting in place this new testing regime even before the
National Academy has had a chance to complete the work they
want to do in reviewing the different standards and
measurements that we can take.
I'd be curious to hear your opinion in regards to this new
National Reporting System, the impact it's having, whether you
think it makes sense or whether there's another approach that
we can take in working with the Administration so we get this
aspect of the Head Start program done right and not wrong,
which I think is very important in regards to the performance
of these kids and where they're going to go from there. And I'd
just open it up to anyone on the panel, quite frankly, who's
interested in touching that rail.
Mr. Siegfried. Thank you. Although I appreciate the
objectivity of the data available through the National
Reporting System, it only allows me, the user, to see this
information at one level, at the agency level. Users have no
ability to filter out information at the center or classroom
level and certainly can't then therefore impact individual
teaching, because that report is not available, nor can I
provide any information back to a parent in that regard.
It also measures three developmental domains, and we know
that our holistic service would appreciate eight domains, and
that certainly is our approach as comprehensive services. We
prefer to look at child outcomes really through many different
lenses. Certainly our Brigance screening done initially within
45 days of enrollment gives us some initial information.
Also the Child Observation Record, the COR, High/Scope's
COR, that we do implement then throughout the school year
provides information that is directly aligned to the Federal
performance standards, certainly the domains and elements and
also the ODE Early Learning Contents standards.
We collect data three times a school year, four in our year
round programs, and then we can filter that information out by
county, by program option. We can sort that in different ways
really to determine the patterns and trends that we see. So
that information is very useful to us.
We can also take that information and we can then apply it
to High/Scope's Outcomes Reporter software, which then allows
us to see how the information that we are determining as growth
comparatively on the COR six scales then translates to the
eight Federal domains as well as the required elements within
the framework.
In addition, we use less formal methods of assessment,
including portfolio systems that parents find very friendly
because there's oftentimes photographs and anecdotal notes that
accompany of course more formal reports available through some
of these other observation pieces.
Last, the piece that we have recently adopted, the ECERS
and the ITERS, the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale,
again, it's a very comprehensive measure certainly. It measures
the environment, it measures everything really from how deep
the mulch is on the playground to how wide the doors in your
classroom. And certainly it measures then the adult-child
interaction, the ability of staff to relate appropriately to
children to extend ideas, to relate it to concepts, and to
really deepen that knowledge.
Mr. Kind. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I see my time has
expired, but if any of the other panelists have something to
add, I would encourage you to maybe forward some information or
get directly in touch with my office so we can work with you on
this very important matter, I feel.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Castle. Thank you, Mr. Kind. Mr. Osborne is
recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Osborne. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you all for
being here today. First of all, just a rather quick specific
question. Mrs. Mainster, I think you mentioned that you have a
budget of $47 million and you serve 6,000 children, and I think
that would translate to about $7,800 per student.
Ms. Mainster. Yes.
Mr. Osborne. It seems a little high, but maybe I don't
understand. And I wonder if you could comment on that as to
what the average cost for a Head Start student is and how you
justify those costs.
Ms. Mainster. Sorry I gave you the numbers, but I'll try.
Actually, we also have two charter schools in those numbers.
That is, those are not all Head Start children. And in the Head
Start arena, we serve--two-thirds of the children we serve are
infants and toddlers. Infants and toddlers require a one-to-
four staff/child ratio. It is much, much more expensive, no
question. I don't actually think we do it on $7,800. It's more
than that, sir.
Mr. Osborne. Yes.
Ms. Mainster. I would yield if I could, because I would
have to play with some numbers to get you the actual cost in
Head Start, in Migrant Head Start and in Early Head Start and
in child care. I could do that. But when you lump it all
together, it's an average, and it doesn't include the two
charter schools.
Mr. Osborne. Well, let me throw out a broader question, and
that is that every group we have come before us is ecstatic
about how important Head Start is, how good it is, how much
they're doing. And I agree that it's a very important program,
and I think it's obviously something that we need to support as
much as we can. Do you have any ways of quantifying what you're
getting done? In other words, at some point somebody's going to
ask some questions and say, well, you know, everybody feels
good about it. The kids are happier. There's more
socialization. But what evidence do we have? You know,
because--do you have any control studies where you have a set
number of people with similar backgrounds and skills, one of
which has gone to Head Start, one which has not, and where they
are 2 years, 6 years, 8 years, 10 years later?
Ms. Cunningham. There's a Head Start impact study going on
right now in its third year I believe collecting exactly that
kind of data. We're expecting a report soon. It's a national
study in lots of communities across the nation, and it has a
control group of children and a group who went to Head Start
that it's comparing over several years.
There are lots of small studies that have also looked at
Head Start children compared to children not in Head Start. We
did a small one in our program, and we're seeking an
opportunity to find those children now that they're in about
fourth grade to see what a difference having been in Head Start
made.
So there are lots of folks looking at how Head Start
children have done compared to other children across the
nation.
Ms. Mainster. And I would just, we tried--we actually
contracted with the university to do such a study, and then
the--and I don't want to say it wrong, but I think it's HIPPA--
but it was another where confidentiality was etched up a notch,
and they backed out. They said the school district wasn't
allowed to release that data.
Now possibly within a school district they could do it
themselves, but not for a school district to release the data
to the university for us. So we did try, because we recognize
what you're saying. We have lots and lots of good stories we
can prove individuals, but I can't give you the numbers that I
think you need.
Mr. Osborne. OK. Go ahead.
Dr. Daeschner. Our programs, Early Childhood has been in
place about 7 years. That would make the kids about fourth
graders if you look at three- and 4-year-olds. And we matched
kids going into this six or 7 years ago, and we matched it
against free lunch that got Early Childhood programs and ones
that did not.
At the end of the fourth grade, we're looking at about an 8
percent difference in standardized reading and similar to that
with about a variance of two points on either side of that in
terms of math.
Where it really begins to also make a significant different
is in special education. The kids that we can get in special
education at a preschool, three- and 4-year-old and look at
that comparative group, we have a lot less that qualify for
special education at that fourth grade level if it occurs at
the three and 4-year-old level. So we've got real clear data.
I'd be happy to give you all those stats. We've tracked that.
We've flagged the kids. We watched them, and we have all that
data from almost 6 years.
Mr. Osborne. Well, I think in reauthorization of Head Start
which we went through last year and will go through again this
year, one of the main concerns was that really when you look at
enhanced academic performance, there wasn't maybe as much as we
had hoped would be there, and therefore we put in some
stipulations that required a little bit more academic rigor,
and that's kind of a tough term to use when you're dealing with
three- and 4-year-olds, but at least ability to know the
alphabet and to write your name and, you know, the nuts and
bolts and some of the basics.
So the desire is to maybe enhance the academic performance.
I think what you're saying is right. There's a lot of
overidentification in the special education issue, and it could
very well be that Head Start does cut down some of that
overidentification or misidentification. And so anyway, but the
more data we can get our hands on, you know, the better we can
do. And it's a little sketchy right now, so. Mr. Chairman, I
yield back. Thank you.
Chairman Castle. Thank you, Mr. Osborne. Mrs. Davis is
recognized for 5 minutes.
Mrs. Davis. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you
all for being here. I'm sorry that I had to be at another
hearing, but I wanted to just express to you, as others have, I
mean, we all feel that the program has certainly made a
difference for many, many children. It is interesting that
perhaps the gap has closed a little bit between those who do
not have the advantage of Head Start and those who do. But that
may be because of other factors, as well.
I'm amazed by how much young children are exposed to today,
but the real critical issue is that there are children who are
exposed to many, many things and those who are exposed to a
little bit, and we need to try and balance that.
I wanted to go to Ms. Cunningham for a second, because I
know that we speak about the number of children that are on
waiting lists. And we're also concerned about funding. If you
had more funding, however, would you have the capacity to have
the teachers that you need, the infrastructure, the facilities,
all the things that are needed to make the program work?
Ms. Cunningham. It would take time, but we could do it. It
takes training teachers. It takes the money to pay them. It
takes funds to help us find facilities and bring them up to
licensing standards. But all of that can be done. We've done
that for years. As long as there's not the expectation that it
will be done tomorrow, we can serve more children over time.
Mrs. Davis. OK. Thank you. One other question, and I think
you probably addressed nutrition earlier, but we are very
concerned about obesity in young children today. Do you see
that Head Start is working to address this more? And
particularly in the area of parent education. Because I think
it really starts in the home. And kind of tough. I saw that the
Cookie Monster is actually going to be eating more vegetables,
and I was really glad to see that.
But I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that and
what plans are being done to really focus particularly on the
parent education piece of that, because that's important.
Ms. Cunningham. In our program we did a study of children's
and parents' activity to begin to see what the problem in terms
of activity--intake versus activity was. And we really
determine that our children are not getting out and playing
enough, not having enough physical activity, and that our
parents are not serving them fruits and vegetables enough to
provide the kind of healthy intake we'd like.
So we use our parent involvement component as a vehicle for
more training and demonstrations to parents about healthy
eating. We participate in a study with the university, the
University of Alabama, trying to find a way to encourage more
low income families, more low income children, more low income
parents to provide fruits and vegetables for their children.
I just came from a conversation at the Kellogg Foundation
about what they can do to begin to help parents of young
children provide more healthy meals and provide more activity
for them. So there's a real interest in Head Start.
Mrs. Davis. That's great. Thank you. I appreciate that. And
it is a combination of factors and it applies to all parents,
not just parents in Head Start, but we certainly can accentuate
that perhaps more.
One other quick question on assessments, because I think
that is terribly important. We always are telling people, tell
us your story, but we need to have data, too. It's not just
anecdotal. You seem to--you alluded, I think, to the importance
of children being in programs. I think my colleague mentioned
the food that's presented so that there's sort of a cultural
identity with that.
When we're assessing, are we trying to minimize the
cultural dissonance with children so that what it is they bring
from the home actually is carried through and we're evaluating
partly their progress in relating to that which they know as
well as that which is new to them? But is there consistency
with that? Do you think that there's enough emphasis on that?
Ms. Mainster. There's a difference between assessment and
testing. In our assessment tools, I think all of us are very
cognizant and aware of that, and I did include our outcomes in
my testimony, which your staff might want to wade through.
But the testing, there were a lot of concerns about that
very issue in terms of children having to learn what a vase was
and what a swamp was. Kids are amazing, though. And the
teachers are also amazing. So we're teaching more about vases
and swamps these days.
Mrs. Davis. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Chairman Castle. Thank you, Mrs. Davis. I'm going to
recognize--actually, I'm going to recognize Mr. Scott and Mr.
Hinojosa together. Let me explain why. We are in the middle of
a vote. We've got about 10 minutes to go on the vote, and we've
got to leave in about five or 6 minutes to go vote, and it's a
series of votes, so it's going to be 30 or 40 minutes. And
rather than bring everybody back, I think I'm going to try to
finish the panel up.
I had a few extra questions that I'll submit in writing,
particular to you, Dr. Daeschner, that I want to get some
answers to. But I want to make sure they have their
opportunity. So, gentlemen, you take whatever time we can allow
until we have to go vote in five or 6 minutes.
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you,
Congressman Scott, for allowing me to ask at least one question
before we rush off to vote.
It was last year that three different caucuses, the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus,
and the Congressional Asian-Pacific American Caucus, sent a
letter to the Secretary of HHS detailing our concerns about the
technical quality of the assessment and the appropriate use of
such assessment of Head Start students. Nonetheless, HHS has
moved forward with this assessment without ensuring that the
assessment meets the highest quality technical and professional
standards, and this is especially true for the test given in
Spanish. More seriously, HHS has proceeded with this national
assessment without clearly defining the purpose nor how the
results will be used.
I would like to ask Ms. Gayle Cunningham, the executive
director from the Alabama program, to share with us your view
of the appropriateness of this assessment for the children that
they serve and to comment on their understanding of the purpose
of such assessment.
Ms. Cunningham. The children we serve in Birmingham are
predominately black, so we did not have as many of the issues
around very different cultures. Our concern is about the
addition of this test to all the other assessment which we
developed or made choices about which we believe to be
appropriate and to fit into our program; the amount of time
that it has taken for our staff to learn this new test and
administer this new test; the fact that the feedback that we
receive has not yet been useful to us. It's general. It's about
the whole program. It's not about individual children,
individual classes, or even individual centers.
Mr. Hinojosa. You've made a good point. Can you tell us how
you and the other members of this panel can help us draft what
would be the ideal way to do it and how to use that assessment?
Maybe pass the buck over to the lady to your right. How do we
pronounce your name, Mainster?
Ms. Mainster. Yes, sir.
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you.
Ms. Mainster. Please don't pass the buck to me.
[Laughter.]
Ms. Mainster. I would say in our Migrant and Seasonal Head
Start program this year, they didn't have their act together to
get the NRS out to us. In our regular Head Start, we serve
about one-third Hispanic, one-third African-American, and one-
third Anglos. And those Hispanic kids, of course, are the more
seasonal settled out. Their English is better. And so it's hard
for us. They did take it in the two languages.
I guess maybe--I'm writing down that you want information,
you want to know how to fix it. There are experts here that
could do that much better than I. I will just tell you that we
roll with the punches. I'm not--we're going to do what we have
to do. We're going to keep on doing a good program. I would
just wait. If anybody every tried to hit us over the head with
it, I would come back with my ammunition at that point.
Mr. Hinojosa. Well, we--
Chairman Castle. Mr. Hinojosa, we've got to go, Mr. Scott,
or we're never going to get to him.
Mr. Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me just make a
couple of comments. We talk about these studies and the
longitudinal studies I hope we're considering not just the
educational aspects but the other aspects, reduction in crime,
behavior, drug use, teen pregnancy and everything else that
happens long term.
There's a reason why this program is in Health and Human
Services and not in Education, because you have the
immunizations, the nutrition, and all the other things that are
as much social service as well as anything else, and there's a
strong belief that it is in the right department.
I have the same concern that Mr. Hinojosa had about the
high stakes test. We don't want to punish children who fail a
test because they were in a bad program, but we do want to make
the assessments, because the programs--some programs are better
than others. And if you're assessing the program, that's one
thing. If you're punishing the children and failing to promote
and that kind of thing, that is not as useful. The tests
obviously have to be validated for the purpose for which they
are being used.
Also, as we're doing these assessments, I would hope they
would be useful in improving the program. Some programs are
better than others. If a program is not doing well, the
assessment ought to be able to show exactly what we can do to
improve it.
So with all of those on assessments and the social aspects
of it, Mr. Chairman, I'd just express those concerns. I assume
we're going to be having other hearings. And I appreciate the
opportunity for you to kind of squeeze us in at the end.
Chairman Castle. Thank you, Mr. Scott. What Mr. Scott is
referring to in the other hearing is we're having another
hearing on this subject next week at which point we can
continue to develop some of these issues, and I appreciate his
helping with the time situation that we have.
Yes, Ms. Cunningham? You've got to be brief, but we'd love
to hear from you.
Ms. Cunningham. Just quickly, in response to your first
question about regulations, there's a much greater need for
managers to have more training and support in using and
following regulations.
Chairman Castle. Federal managers?
Ms. Cunningham. No. Head Start managers.
Chairman Castle. Head Start managers.
Ms. Cunningham. There's no system for bringing Head Start
directors on, Head Start fiscal staff on, and helping them--
Chairman Castle. Training for them.
Ms. Cunningham [continuing]. Quickly learn the regulations
and how to assure that they are working in their programs. Each
of us has had to figure it out for ourselves. And if there were
a system of supports for management and administration of Head
Start programs, I think that would be a path that would yield
greater benefits than one of seeking out what regulations could
be changed or dismissed.
Chairman Castle. That has the ring of a sound suggestion.
You know, we do have the various regional agencies and that
kind of thing, so hopefully we could do it.
Let me close this down, unfortunately rather rapidly,
because we have to run and vote. Let me thank all of you very
much for being here. Because we didn't quite have a chance to
do all the questioning we would like to do, we may have some
follow-up questions. I know in particular I have some questions
for Dr. Daeschner. We'll get in touch with you by mail if
that's the case.
But, again, I wanted to thank you all very much for being
here. As you know, we're working on this legislation.
Hopefully, we'll have a piece of legislation that will benefit
all the kids in the country.
But thank you very much.
Ms. Mainster. Thank you.
Chairman Castle. We stand adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:53 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
[Additional material submitted for the record follows:]
Statement of Charles R. Field MD, MPH, FAAP, Mary Kaye McKinney and
Patricia A. Price, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Department of Pediatrics Head Start Program, Pulaski County, AR,
Submitted for the Record
Since 1998, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS),
a teaching university, has had the opportunity to administer the Head
Start program in Pulaski County, Arkansas. The UAMS Department of
Pediatrics became the grantee for the Pulaski County Head Start program
in November of that year and today enrolls approximately 1000 Head
Start and Early Head Start children and serves the interests of many
more in the community.
The primary purpose of the national Head Start and Early Head Start
programs--to increase the school readiness of low-income children--is a
perfect match for the three missions of UAMS: to teach, to search, and
to serve. UAMS accomplishes both by offering more than the traditional
Head Start services. The UAMS Head Start program is highly successful
at helping our students prepare for school. Attached is graphical
information about the success our program has had in educating students
and preparing them for elementary school. We are very proud of our
accomplishments in this area.
We are pleased today, however, to tell you about two areas of
services we provide which set us apart from others in the Head Start
community. Because of our education mission, we endeavor to promote
educational opportunities beyond our students and because we are a
medical education institution, we use our Head Start program to promote
the health of our students, families, and community.
Educating the Community. In addition to educating children, the
UAMS Head Start program provides educational opportunities to many
others. The program provides service-learning opportunities to students
enrolled in the UAMS Colleges of Nursing, Medicine, Health Related
Professions and Public Health. These graduate level students work with
our Head Start children and as a result gain valuable experience in
dealing with children. Their involvement provides hands on experience
and prepares them for the challenges they may face in their medical
practice. We also provide tuition discounts to help our Head Start
employees (and their family members) continue their education at UAMS
affiliated higher education institutions.
Ensuring a Health Community. The thing that truly sets the Head
Start program at UAMS apart from others is our commitment to using the
Head Start program to promote the health and welfare of our community.
Children enrolled in our program and their parents have access to
health, nutrition, dental and mental health services from UAMS and
other sources. The services, provided by our students and faculty,
range from basic medical screening services to consultations with
medical specialists.
Since its inception, UAMS has provided free medical services to
hundreds of students and families. UAMS staff has performed more than
100 health care screenings on students without access to primary care;
719 children without dental insurance have received dental checkups
from UAMS dentists; and more than 100 children have been referred to
UAMS physicians for comprehensive specialty pediatric services. In all
these cases, the services provided would not have otherwise been
available to the students because of gaps in, or lack of, health
insurance. Two recent cases provide concrete examples of the success
UAMS has had in promoting health among students:
<bullet> A Head Start mother with a substance abuse problem sought
assistance from Head Start personnel. The UAMS Head Start personnel
referred the mother to the UAMS Arkansas Center on Addiction Research
Education and Service (CARES). The mother continues to receive
treatment and job skills training as a result of the referral. Most
importantly, the services were provided without separation from her
family and her preschool children continued to receive integrated early
childhood education including therapy services to deal with the
mother's addiction.
<bullet> Just last month, Head Start personnel noted a four-year
old student with balance difficulty and a propensity to drool. Medical
personnel on site at the Head Start facility monitored the student and
reviewed her medical records. Based on these observations the student
was referred to UAMS medical specialists. UAMS specialists discovered a
brain tumor. The child is now undergoing treatment by UAMS
Neurosurgeons and Pediatric Specialists.
Head Start students and families also participate in research
programs conducted by UAMS. Students and families receive health care
services and the information derived through the research helps UAMS
find ways to improve the condition of the students, families, and the
community. For example, UAMS Head Start has participated in the
following research initiatives:
<bullet> Asthma Project--An initiative, funded by the Agency for
Health Care Research and Quality, to find better outcomes for children
with Asthma. UAMS researchers showed children with Asthma proved better
outcomes for children with Asthma using the Head Start program by
educating parents and staff on Asthma.
<bullet> Obesity Project--The UAMS Department of Clinical
Nutrition provides interns twice a year to compile data on the height,
weight and body mass index profile of the UAMS Head Start Children.
UAMS uses this information to chart childhood obesity and researchers
utilize the data to educate parents and the public on ways to address
childhood obesity. Information compiled by UAMS supported statewide
efforts to develop comprehensive nutritional programs and an
educational/physical curriculum to help reduce obesity in our children.
<bullet> Health Screening Data--UAMS medical professionals use
information derived through the health screenings provided to Head
Start students and families to better understand and promote child
development.
We are very proud of the accomplishments of the children, their
parents and our staff in our Head Start program. As the attached
information shows, we have had a great deal of success in educating our
students and preparing them for elementary school. But in addition to
educating the students, the integration between our Head Start program
and the facilities and personnel of UAMS allow us to offer services and
accomplish things for our students and families, that sets us apart. We
know the UAMS Head Start program is laying a foundation for a better
tomorrow for thousands of families in the state.
[Attachments to this statement follow:]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T0629.005
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T0629.006
------
Statement of Matthew E. Melmed, J.D., Executive Director, Zero to Three
Policy Center, Washington, DC, Submitted for the Record
Chairman Castle and Members of the Subcommittee:
I am pleased to submit the following testimony on the
reauthorization of Head Start on behalf of ZERO TO THREE. I am Matthew
Melmed, Executive Director of ZERO TO THREE. ZERO TO THREE is a
national non-profit organization that has worked to advance the healthy
development of America's babies and toddlers for over twenty-five
years. I would like to start by thanking the Subcommittee for all of
their work to ensure that our nation's at-risk infants and toddlers
have access to positive early learning experiences.
We know from the science of early childhood development that
infancy and toddlerhood are times of intense intellectual
engagement.\1\ During this time--a remarkable 36 months--the brain
undergoes its most dramatic development, and children acquire the
ability to think, speak, learn, and reason. All babies and toddlers
need positive early learning experiences to foster their intellectual,
social, and emotional development and to lay the foundation for later
school success. Babies and toddlers living in high-risk environments
need additional supports to promote their healthy growth and
development. Disparities in children's cognitive and social abilities
become evident well before they enter Head Start or Pre-Kindergarten
programs at age four. Early Head Start was created to help minimize
these disparities and ensure that children enter school ready to learn.
The Success of Early Head Start
The Congressionally mandated National Evaluation of Early Head
Start--a rigorous, large-scale, random-assignment evaluation--concluded
that Early Head Start is making a positive difference in areas
associated with children's success in school, family self-sufficiency,
and parental support of child development. What is most compelling
about the Early Head Start data is that they reflect a broad set of
indicators, all of which show positive impact--patterns of impacts
varied in meaningful ways for different subgroups of families. The
reauthorization provides an opportunity to focus on what can be done to
achieve even greater impacts for infants, toddlers and families in
Early Head Start. Highlights of the study include:
Intellectual, Social and Emotional Development
<bullet> Early Head Start Moves Children Further Along the Path
that Could Lead to Greater School Readiness if the Early Head Start
Gains are Maintained By Good-Quality Preschool Programs. Early Head
Start produced statistically significant, positive impacts on
standardized measures of children's cognitive and language
development.\2\ A smaller percentage of Early Head Start children (27.3
percent versus 32.0 percent) scored in the ``at-risk'' range of
developmental functioning (although still below the mean of national
norms). By keeping children from entering the lowest-functioning group,
Early Head Start may be reducing the risk of later poor cognitive,
language, and school outcomes.\3\
<bullet> Early Head Start Children Had More-Positive Interactions
With Their Parents than control group children. Positive and secure
parent-child relationships may reduce a young child's fear in novel or
challenging situations and enable the child to explore with
confidence.\4\
<bullet> Early Head Start Children Were More Attentive To Objects
During Play than control group children. Play is important because
being attentive to and engaged in play activities is how children begin
to learn important cognitive and social skills needed for later school
and life success.
Parenting and Families
<bullet> Early Head Start Parents Were More Involved and Provided
More Support for Learning. Early Head Start programs have significant
favorable impacts on a range of parenting outcomes. Early Head Start
parents were observed to be more emotionally supportive and less
detached than control-group parents. They also provided significantly
more support for language and learning than control-group parents.
<bullet> Early Head Start Helped Parents Move Toward Self-
Sufficiency. Early Head Start significantly facilitated parents''
progress toward self-sufficiency. Although there were not significant
increases in income, there was increased parental participation in
education and job-training activities.
<bullet> Early Head Start Programs Had A Substantial Impact on
African American Families and A Notable Impact on Hispanic Families.
Early Head Start programs were especially effective in improving child
development and parenting outcomes of African American children and
parents. The Early Head Start programs also had a favorable pattern of
impacts on Hispanic children and parents.
<bullet> Early Head Start Had Positive Impact for Parents at Risk
of Depression. Early Head Start parents who had been at risk for
depression when they enrolled in the program reported significantly
less depression than control-group parents reported when their child
reached age three. Early Head Start also demonstrated a favorable
pattern of impact on children's social-emotional development and
parenting outcomes among these families.
<bullet> Early Head Start Had Favorable Impact on Child-Father
Interactions. Early Head Start significantly improved how fathers
interacted and related to their children. Early Head Start children
were observed to be more able to engage their fathers and to be more
attentive during play than control group children. Early Head Start
fathers were observed to be less intrusive in interacting with their
children than control group fathers. The emotional quality of the
father-child relationship appears to be extremely important to
children's adjustment and well-being.\5\
<bullet> Early Head Start Participation resulted in Fewer
Subsequent Births. Early Head Start low-income mothers were less likely
to have subsequent births within the two years following enrollment in
Early Head Start.
Children Served by Early Head Start
Early Head Start began with 68 new programs in 1995. Now more than
700 programs serve over 71,000 low-income families with infants and
toddlers. However, we know that Early Head Start could benefit many
more at-risk children. Currently, only 5 percent of the children
eligible for Early Head Start are served. Thousands of eligible
children nationwide remain on waiting lists. And waiting lists can be
significant. For example, one program has reported a waiting list of
over 400 children for only 92 slots. A program in Wheeling, West
Virginia reports that they have a waiting list of 216 children for 48
slots. And a program in Asheville, North Carolina reports that they
receive phone calls on a daily basis from desperate parents needing a
quality early education program. The program rarely has vacancies and
has a waiting list of over 100 children for only 40 slots. In short, by
every measure of capacity, we clearly must do more to serve eligible
babies and their families, delivering the proven benefits of Early Head
Start to those who are in greatest need. There are very few high
quality alternatives for at-risk babies. Child care for this population
is abysmal and there is not much going on in states. Early Head Start
has really become a ``Beacon of Hope'' for at risk infants, toddlers
and their families
Funding
Currently, 10 percent of the overall Head Start budget is used to
serve 71,000 low-income families with infants and toddlers through
Early Head Start--only 5 percent of all eligible children. We strongly
encourage the Subcommittee to increase the Early Head Start portion of
the program to 20 percent of the overall Head Start budget. Additional
funds will enable us to protect and continue to build on the firm
foundation that currently exists and to ensure that more eligible
babies and families are able to benefit from the services of Early Head
Start.
The Head Start Program Performance Standards
Key to Early Head Start's success is its emphasis on the
implementation of the Head Start Program Performance Standards--
research from the National Evaluation of Early Head Start demonstrates
that programs that fully implement the Performance Standards early on
have a greater impact on child and family outcomes than those that do
not.\6\ This finding indicates that the success of the program is
largely dependent on the preservation of these performance standards.
The first set of Head Start Performance Standards, published more than
20 years ago, focused only on the provision of services to preschool
children. The revised Standards cover the provision of services for
pregnant women and children from birth to five years of age. We urge
the Subcommittee to protect the Performance Standards as they are key
to Early Head Start's success.
The Performance Standards ensure that Early Head Start programs pay
close attention to the unique needs of infants and toddlers by:
supporting responsive, consistent, nurturing caregiving; promoting
social and emotional growth, physical development, and sensory and
motor development; and encouraging language development. The
Performance Standards pay particular attention to the social and
emotional development of infants and toddlers by focusing on their
relationship with their teachers and ensuring that center-based and
home-based teachers are consistent and nurturing, well-trained, and
that they understand the child's family culture. The Performance
Standards are different for infants and toddlers. Examples include:
<bullet> A Higher Ratio Requirement: Agencies must ensure that
each teacher that works exclusively with infants and toddlers in a
center-based setting has responsibility for no more than four infants
and toddlers and that no more than eight infants and toddlers are
placed in a group. This ratio is maintained until Early Head Start
children are 36 months. For programs serving 3, 4 and 5-year old
children, the ratio requirements are quite different. Each Head Start
class must be staffed by a teacher and an aide or two teachers. Three
year-olds have an average of 15-17 children per class, with no more
than 17 children enrolled in any class. 4 and 5 year-olds have a class
average of 17-20 children, with no more than 20 children enrolled per
class.
<bullet> More Staff Intensive: Early Head Start program staff
working with infants and toddlers who are counted in the ratio must be
qualified as an infant/toddler teacher which means that the individual
must have a minimum of a CDA credential for Infant and Toddler
Caregivers or an equivalent credential at the time of hire or within
one year of hire. Thus, the teacher's aide concept that is so common in
Head Start preschool programs has no currency in EHS. Unlike Head Start
teachers, EHS teachers must also have knowledge of infant and toddler
development, safety issues in infant and toddler care, and methods for
communicating effectively with infants and toddlers, their parents, and
other staff members.
<bullet> Special Nutritional Requirements: Staff and families must
work together to identify each child's nutritional needs. For infants
and toddlers, current feeding schedules and amounts and types of food
provided, including whether breast milk or formula and baby food is
used, meal patterns, new foods introduced, food intolerances and
preferences; voiding patterns; and observations related to
developmental changes in feeding and nutrition. In addition, infants
and toddlers who need it must be fed ``on demand''. Head Start children
do not have these special nutritional requirements. The Performance
Standards do note that the feeding experiences for preschoolers should
occur at scheduled times, and be flexible enough to deal with the
individual needs of children.
<bullet> Services to Pregnant Women Enrolled in Early Head Start:
Early Head Start grantees must assist pregnant women to access
comprehensive prenatal and postpartum care through referrals--
immediately after enrollment in the program. This care must include:
early and continuing risk assessments which include an assessment of
nutritional status as well as nutrition counseling and food assistance;
health promotion and treatment including medical and dental
examinations on a schedule deemed appropriate by the attending health
care providers as early in the pregnancy as possible; and mental health
interventions and follow-up including substance abuse prevention and
treatment services as needed. Requirements for services to pregnant
women do not apply for Head Start as only Early Head Start serves
pregnant women.
Training and Technical Assistance
From the beginning, Early Head Start's implementation was assisted
by a dedicated national and regional training and technical assistance
network with specialized knowledge of the needs of infants, toddlers
and their families. Given the recent changes in the overall Head Start
training and technical assistance system, the small size of the Early
Head Start program, and the positive child and family outcomes that the
program is yielding, we are concerned about the maintenance of the
national and regional Early Head Start training and technical
assistance system. In order to sustain the positive outcomes generated
by the program, Early Head Start programs and staff need to continue to
receive the ongoing training opportunities and technical assistance
from organizations with specialized expertise relating to infants,
toddlers and families and the demonstrated capacity needed to provide
direction and support to the national and regional training and
technical assistance system.
Early Head Start's Comprehensive Approach
Research demonstrates that comprehensive services, such as
education, health and family support services have a positive impact on
Early Head Start families. We urge the Subcommittee to protect Early
Head Start's comprehensive approach to serving children and families.
Comprehensive services include:
<bullet> Education: In providing services to infants and toddlers,
Early Head Start programs must support the physical, social, emotional,
cognitive, and language development of each child. Early Head Start
programs are to encourage the development of secure relationships for
infants and toddlers by having a limited number of consistent teachers
over an extended period of time and are to encourage responsiveness to
infants'' individual cues and developmental changes. Teachers in both
center-based and home-based settings should understand the child's
family culture and speak the child's language whenever possible. Staff
must support the social and emotional development of infants and
toddlers by promoting an environment that will encourage the
development of self awareness, autonomy, and self expression and
support the emerging communication skills of infants and toddlers by
providing daily opportunities for each child to interact with others
and to express him/herself freely. Staff must also support the physical
development of infants and toddlers by supporting the development of
physical skills of infants and toddlers including motor skills such as
grasping, pulling, crawling, walking and climbing and creating
opportunities for fine motor development that encourage control and
coordination of small specialized motions using the eyes, mouth, hands
and feet. Ongoing assessment of each child's skills and behaviors plays
a key role in developing a curriculum that is age-appropriate,
culturally sensitive, and tailored to meet his or her specific needs.
As previously mentioned, the National Evaluation found that Early Head
Start produced statistically significant, positive impacts on
standardized measures of children's cognitive and language
development.\7\
<bullet> Family Support: Early Head Start programs are required to
involve families in every aspect of the program and provide them with
added services, such as adult education and employment training.
Programs are to work with families to set goals for themselves and
their children and should ensure families'' access to community
resources and services. Programs use community partnerships as a key
vehicle for increasing families'' access to quality child care,
prenatal services, housing, employment, and maternal and child health
care. The National Evaluation found that Early Head Start helped
parents move toward self-sufficiency. Early Head Start significantly
facilitated parents'' progress toward self-sufficiency. Although there
were not significant increases in income, there was increased parental
participation in education and job-training activities.
<bullet> Health: Early Head Start provides comprehensive health
services to infants, toddlers and families through prevention and the
early identification of health and developmental concerns, and through
links to community health services. Early Head Start programs provide
health and developmental screenings when children enroll and
periodically throughout children's participation in the program. If a
health or developmental concern is identified that indicates a
disability or other developmental delay, children are promptly referred
to local Part C programs for further evaluation and if eligible, early
intervention services are provided. The National Evaluation found that
few effects on family health emerged due to very few overall
differences between program and control groups in the receipt of health
services--nearly all program and control group families reported
receiving basic health services.\8\
Conclusion
During the first three years of life, children rapidly develop
foundational capabilities--cognitive, social and emotional--on which
subsequent development builds. These years are even more important for
at-risk infants and toddlers. Early Head Start can serve as a
protective buffer against the multiple adverse influences that may
hinder their development in all domains.
We know based on research from the National Evaluation that Early
Head Start is working! Key to the program's success is its emphasis on
the implementation of the Head Start Program Performance Standards,
which ensure the highest quality care for babies and families and its
comprehensive approach to serving children and families. We must
protect and continue to build on the firm foundation that currently
exists and ensure that our nation's at-risk babies are able to enter
school ready to learn.
Endnotes
\1\ Shonkoff J., and Phillips, D. (Eds.) (2000). National Research
Council and Institute of Medicine. From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The
Science of Early Childhood Development. Washington, DC: National
Academy Press.
\2\ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration
for Children and Families (2002). Making a Difference in the Lives of
Infants and Toddlers and Their Families: The Impacts of Early Head
Start. Washington, DC.
\3\ Ibid
\4\ Shonkoff J., and Phillips, D. (Eds.) (2000). National Research
Council and Institute of Medicine. From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The
Science of Early Childhood Development. Washington, DC: National
Academy Press.
\5\ Ibid
\6\ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration
for Children and Families (2002). Making a Difference in the Lives of
Infants and Toddlers and Their Families: The Impacts of Early Head
Start. Washington, DC.
ZERO TO THREE Policy Center (2003). The national evaluation of
Early Head Start: Early Head Start works. Washington, DC: Author.
\7\ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration
for Children and Families (2002). Making a Difference in the Lives of
Infants and Toddlers and Their Families: The Impacts of Early Head
Start. Washington, DC.
\8\ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration
for Children and Families (2001). Building Their Futures: How Early
Head Start Programs are Enhancing the Lives of Infants and Toddlers in
Low-Income Families, Summary Report. Washington, DC.
______
Statement of Dr. Tim Nolan, Director, Head Start Program, Waukesha
County, WI, Submitted for the Record
Chairman Castle, Congresswoman Woolsey and distinguished members of
the committee, I thank you for inviting my testimony regarding
exemplary Head Start programs. It has been my honor to serve as the
director of the Head Start program in Waukesha County, Wisconsin since
1968. I have also served during this period as executive director of
our agency, operating as Child and Family Centers of Excellence which
provides Head Start, Early Head Start, full day child care services and
a variety of other services for children and families in our community.
I am also executive director of the newly created Early Childhood
Excellence Network with members from across the U.S. As president of
Innovative Outcomes, Inc. since 1973, I have been a consultant to
organizations on issues of organizational effectiveness, strategic
planning and transformational change. I am the author or co-author of
34 books on these and related topics. It is upon this diverse and rich
background that I draw as I approach the topic of exemplary Head Start
programs. I believe that excellent Head Start programs are an untapped
asset that can be used to help make every Head Start the best that it
can be.
Every Head Start Grantee is Expected to Meet High Minimum Standards:
The Head Start Performance Standards are the highest minimum
standards in the field of early childhood development. These standards
are comprehensive in nature and reflect the need to deal with a child
across all of his or her developmental dimensions. All agencies are
expected to meet or exceed these minimum standards. Meeting the
Performance Standards does NOT equate to excellence.
Exemplary Head Start Agencies:
Exemplary Head Start agencies see the Performance Standards for
what they are--minimum standards of performance. For agencies pursuing
excellence in their operations, the Performance Standards are a
foundation, and a reminder of all the dimensions necessary to achieve
success. Exemplary agencies don't work to meet minimums, they work to
shape the standard of excellence through constant innovation.
Excellent Head Start agencies surpass the minimum standards in
measurable ways, and are innovative in ways that help to shape the
field itself and to improve the performance of others. Excellent
agencies have staff members who write books, act as community leaders,
train others and provide support and technical assistance to others.
We at Child and Family Centers of Excellence see ourselves as a
``direct services, demonstration, information services organization.''
We are the largest publisher of professional development materials for
Head Start other than the federal government itself. As a point of
reference, when I relate our experience as an agency, please keep in
mind that what we are accomplishing is done with the same level of Head
Start funding as other agencies--our federal investment per child is
approximately at the national average. We are proud to say that our
administrative costs are below the allowable level of 15%, and are
closer to 10%. Finally, the staffing levels, degree levels of staff and
other variables that we discuss have been our pattern for many years,
with a constant effort to extend and upgrade quality seeking to reach
excellence in all that we do. We are never satisfied. Our
organizational culture is focused on always being able to affirmatively
answer the question ``Is this the best we can do for this child or
family?''
Human Resource and Human Resource Development
The key assets of a Head Start program are its human resources.
Exemplary Head Start grantees recognize this and focus inordinate
efforts at recruiting, developing and retaining the top quality people
available to do this work, which is the most demanding early childhood
developmental work one can be asked to do, due to the depth of problems
and challenges that enrolled families are experiencing. Excellent
agencies have every staff member adhere to a constant professional
development effort.
At Child and Family Centers of Excellence, our human resource
development (HRD) program is headed up by an associate director who
holds a master's degree. As executive director, one of my two master's
degrees is also in human resource development, since I take a special
interest in this aspect of our work. We not only focus on maximizing
the quality of our own staff, but provide training and technical
assistance to other early childhood and family service organizations on
these issues, both inside and outside of our target area. We are
partners with both Viterbo University and the University of Wisconsin
at Milwaukee. Our work as a Governor's Center of Early Childhood
Excellence makes us a training and technical assistance resource to
other Head Start and early childhood programs. We operate a leadership
institute in Missouri and are in the tenth year of providing an early
childhood leadership laboratory in Colorado.
Teachers
While the Head Start Performance Standards specify a minimum of
associate degrees for classroom teachers, exemplary Head Start programs
are more likely to have bachelor's degreed teachers, in many cases
certified or licensed for early childhood.
All of the teachers at Child and Family Centers of Excellence,
Inc., have bachelor's degrees and are certified in early childhood
education with two years of additional training that we provide. Our
teachers, who bear the title ``Child and Family Specialists,'' receive
training in ``real world'' child development, learning to apply their
skills in real early childhood settings with children with relatively
deep needs. Their training further includes achieving a family services
credential (9 graduate credits) to prepare them to serve as the primary
family service resource to parents, making referrals where the needs
surpass their capabilities. They also receive training as supervisors
since every lead person in a preschool classroom supervises other
adults, both employees and volunteers. Few colleges prepare even
degreed teachers for this work as a supervisor. Finally, woven into
their child and family specialist training process is an ongoing series
of personal growth experiences to ensure that they are prepared to
handle the rigors of working in our complex, demanding environment.
They are provided support from internal mental health service personnel
to support their own mental health while working with demanding child
and family needs. Other early childhood staff members working under the
direction of our Child and Family Specialists are hired with as much
background and formal training as possible. While they may even hold
associate or bachelor's degrees when they join us, they are immediately
placed into a developmental track to move their skills forward to meet
current and future needs of this agency.
Family Service Personnel
While the Performance Standards are very light in specifying
academic standards for family services staff, excellent Head Start
agencies develop their own high standards. Excellent agencies seek
degreed individuals and tend to seek a variety of backgrounds as they
build a diverse interdependent family services team.
In our agency, this program is lead by an individual with a
master's degree and years of experience in working with young children
and their families. The Child and Family Specialists working here are
all carefully selected for their mix of skills and training. 90% have
college degrees. All are given family service credential training. Our
senior staff are approved by our university partners to deliver this
training for credit.
Administrators
Excellent agencies seek the most highly qualified individuals for
management and place them into an ongoing professional developmental
program.
Our agency management team has a high degree of stability, with 106
years of experience with this agency among the top four senior
administrators. These four individuals hold a total of nine degrees--
four bachelor's, four master's and a doctorate among them, all relevant
to their work. In addition, we have four others currently working on
master's degrees. Our administrators ``lead from out front,'' doing
whatever needs to be done, working at those things that will make the
biggest difference for the children and families, reducing their pay
first when dollars are tight.
Excellence is About Having Higher Expectations Throughout. . .Think
About a Kaleidoscope
Excellence in Head Start is looking at how to improve--to do a
better job--to better respond to the needs of the children and families
we serve. One can best think of excellence using a kaleidoscope as a
frame of reference. When one turns a kaleidoscope, the eye is treated
to one beautiful picture followed by yet another beautiful picture.
This is the case as you explore the top performing agencies in Head
Start. They do NOT fit a single mold, but express their excellence in a
variety of ways. Their excellence is defined by their vision of what
the ideal program must do to best serve the children--to get the best
possible outcomes for their work.
Using our agency as a further example, here are a few of the
dimensions that I would pull to express this:
Our child nutrition program was very good, certainly the best in
our target area. Yet as childhood obesity and incredibly poor eating
patterns in young children have become a more critical national
problem, we were not satisfied that our food services program met and
exceeded the Head Start Performance Standards or the USDA Child
Nutrition Standards. We went out and recruited a chef. We hired a young
chef with over a decade of experience in the top restaurants in
Milwaukee to lead our food program, to develop the most healthy yet
economical food program possible with low fat stocks made in our own
world class kitchen and flavor that doesn't come only from fat and
salt. As a center of excellence, what we learn will be shared with
other Head Start and early childhood through providing training,
training materials and a handbook for child nutrition. And we are doing
this at the same dollar cost as any other agency.
Our health services program was very good, but we knew it could be
better. We added a second part-time RN to our staff to ensure strong
parent support on health issues and more horsepower to seeking health
services for our enrolled children and their families. We deepened our
partnership with the County Health Department by letting them offer a
community health clinic at our site once per month. We deepened our
already deep level of mental health services by developing a contract
with the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. Not only does this give us
on-site support of a child psychologist on a regularly scheduled basis,
a requirement for Head Start, but it provides ready access to the
largest array of child mental and medical health services in Wisconsin.
We've had a long term relationship with Lutheran Social Services, which
is the largest human services private provider in our state, and is the
birth through 3 provider in our county. Due to our prominence in the
community, they purchased land next to our new world class facility in
order to create a showcase intergenerational program in partnership
with us. A fringe benefit to this deepened partnership is the fact that
their full staff, including mental health professionals and a full
array of child services specialists--dozens of skilled child
specialists--will be housed on our expanding ``campus,'' a huge benefit
to our staff and parents.
Our community partnerships have been very good and are deepening.
Two of our staff over the years have been president of the Waukesha
County Human Services Council. We have created a loosely organized
group, Partners in Community Service, that arrays itself as the needs
evolve in our community. Due to our outreach capabilities with low
income families in our community, other early childhood family service
organizations seek us out. We are a strong referral source to others
seeking to meet the needs of low income families.
Since Wisconsin was the ``national poster child'' for rapid welfare
reform nationally, we were forced to create new approaches to
recruiting and enrolling the neediest young children in our countywho
suddenly were very difficult to find and identify--we went from 1,670
families on AFDC to 14 families on full public assistance in less than
24 months! Through our leadership into the wonderful world of
marketing, we not only achieve full enrollment each year, but have a
waiting list of nearly 100 children. Excellent programs adapt. Finding
350 eligible children in a sea of 350,000 relatively affluent citizens
of our county is not easy, but excellent programs adapt and succeed
tied to fulfilling their vision for themselves. We wrote a handbook on
the topic and have trained hundreds in how marketing can assist the
transformational change necessary in recruitment and retention of
eligible children.
We've always served a somewhat diverse population of families even
though our target area is low in full ethnic diversity. As the Hispanic
population has grown, we have adapted. We've recruited top quality
Spanish speaking staff. We also are committed to the notion that not
only is language important, but so is culture. Our staff members who
were recruited to serve our expanding Hispanic clientele are not only
bilingual but bi-cultural. As we found these rare and talented staff
members, including one individual who holds a master's degree in
psychology, we've found that more families see us as a welcoming place
for them to bring their precious and so needy young children. It is our
county's experience with ``hire them and they will come !
Financial controls are a hallmark of a truly excellent Head Start
agency. When one is trying to do as much as possible with very limited
financial resources, careful stewardship of dollars is absolutely
critical. We have a proud track record of 38 years of absolutely clean
audits. As age impacts us, one of our senior staff, our chief financial
officer, nears retirement, closing out her 35 years with this agency.
We went out and recruited a new finance person with a bachelor's degree
in business and an accounting major. The transition spanned nearly 18
months of orderly development. The discussion upon hiring this new
finance person has been ``will she pursue her CPA or her MBA first ?
Assuming that she spends the next decade or two with us, a fair
expectation given our track record, she will achieve both.
Curriculum, what it is that we do with young children and their
families to achieve the targeted outcomes that identify success, is
critical to excellence. There is no published curriculum that fully
meets the shifting needs of those we serve, so, of course, we developed
our own, formalizing it nearly 20 years ago. It is a curriculum based
on achieving outcomes, which has been its hallmark since its inception,
long before outcomes became the national discussion. Our Child
Development Profile'' has always been outcomes achievement based, and
undergoes a periodic review by our highly trained and educated staff to
determine what is working best in our efforts to prepare children for
public school and life. We work hard to have a knowledge building
organization, learning constantly from our practices, a form of action
research which is most relevant to practitioners.
We are partners with each of the school districts from whose area
we recruit Head Start children. The depth of partnership varies with
both the number of children we feed into their district and the
relationships that have been developed over time. The most potent
partnerships function best at the levels closest to child service
delivery. These relationships, formed on behalf of an individual child
and family, are most effective and most removed from the politics of
systems. We continue to explore common ground with one of our prime
school districts which is exploring going into 4-year-old kindergarten
``because it is profitable.'' Those closest to the children are clear
that quality services that will really make a difference in the life of
a young child at risk are major investments, and that the ``profit''
that a district might experience can come only at the cost of accepting
mediocrity and shortfall.
Excellence is about people and about vision, but it is greatly
enhanced by providing the stage for people to express their very best.
Facilities are a key to creating this platform from which excellence
can take flight. We have created the ideal early childhood facility.
Child development spaces are designed to fully support the efforts of
the incredibly talented corps of child and family specialists. Every
classroom is seamlessly connected with an outdoor area since many of
our young children have little access to play areas in their lives away
from us. We have a world class kitchen so that the food services staff
can create wonderful, nutritious meals. We have professional training
space so that we might constantly develop our own staff and provide the
training and professional development so needed by other child and
family service people from our target area, our state and our region.
Our facilities subtly serve four critically important goals:
A. Recruitment and retention of the children and families that we
seek to serve.
B. Recruitment and retention of the staff that are the key to our
success. Our staff members come to us and stay with us for much of
their careers because we treat them with professionalism and respect.
This starts with providing them with the tools for excellence. It
involves creating a culture of excellence.
C. Positioning us as a leader in the community. By creating a
welcoming environment, we have community partners seeking us out. We
transmit the professionalism that leads to being treated with respect.
The payoff is increasingly impactful services for the children and
families that we serve.
D. Attracting families who are not low income or at high risk. By
being able to achieve a full socioeconomic mix of families served, we
achieve much more progress with children who are served by Head Start.
We have offered full day services year around since we were created in
1966, not because regulations required it, but because our families
needed it.
State Efforts. . .The Governor's Center for Early Childhood Excellence
Our state, under the administration of Gov. Tommy Thompson, decided
to invest in excellence for our youngest children. The result was a
program entitled The Governor's Centers for Early Childhood Excellence.
An effort to explore how to achieve excellence in early childhood
services, in a world of mediocrity in early childhood programs was
about learning more about how to define excellence, to move good
agencies toward excellence, to make investments and to research the
results. As in any good investment, there was an immediate commitment
to research, in this case by the University of Wisconsin. The findings?
Deeper investments result in better quality programs and better
qualified staff.
Child and Family Centers of Excellence competed for such a grant
and were pleased to be selected. Given our high level of internal
service delivery quality, where some Governor's Excellence Centers
grantees directed most of their resources to internal quality
improvement (while meeting the requirement of investing 25% of the
grant each year into training other early childhood program staff and
parents), we directed over 65% to training others. We have leveraged
this state investment into a number of highly creative, impactful
professional development experiences and have helped others improve
their quality of service to children and families.
Excellence is About Shaping the Future. . .One Child and One Family at
a Time
Excellence is about making a difference in the lives of young
children and their families. It is about removing barriers to success
for the young child that is served directly. It is about helping
parents learn how to support the learning of their child, even when
their own school experiences may not have been wonderful. It is about
capacity building in families so that they can succeed long after they
leave their early childhood program.
Early Childhood Excellence CANNOT flourish without involving
parents. We believe that the success of Head Start is about the
creation of what we have labeled as ``Compassionate Partnerships''
between Head Start staff and the parents of enrolled children on behalf
of the young child. When this partnership gets established, trust
follows. With this trust, open honest communication occurs and the
parents'' ability to support learning at home goes up. Parents may
choose to work on their own lives and thus improve the environment in
which they are raising their child. When we partner with them, we help
them identify resources which facilitate overcoming the barriers to
success in their lives and the lives of their children.
One key belief that we have is that any program which seeks to make
a difference in the lives of young children, especially those with high
risk factors, MUST seek to involve the parent in meaningful ways. We
are passionate advocates for this as schools seek to serve younger and
younger children. Parent support is a key to success!
We would ask that Congress provide high expectations surrounding
any program that you fund that the parent be an important part of the
work with young children.
Excellence is About Shaping the Future. . .One Organization at a Time
Excellence is about shaping the environment as well as adapting to
the changes in it. Excellent Head Start agencies provide leaders to
other organizations and associations. They lead early childhood
associations. They provide leadership in community efforts. They
challenge others to be the best that they can be. They encourage
excellence in others by their model, their voice and their sharing.
At Child and Family Centers of Excellence, Inc. a number of us have
taken leadership roles in groups and associations. My own dual
commitment not only to Head Start but to all early childhood programs
in our state began nearly a third of a century ago, when I was elected
the first president of the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association
(WECA), which would become the state affiliate of the National
Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). We sit on the
Boards of R&R's, Technical College early childhood programs and others.
We've provided ongoing strategic planning consultation services for
WECA, the Wisconsin Head Start Association, The Registry, the Milwaukee
R&R, and another 27 associations across the U.S. Over 450 Head Start
programs nationwide have used our strategic planning materials and
model. We help others develop their passionate vision of their ideal
future and work to make that future a reality for children, parents and
staff.
Unique But Not Alone
We are unique but we are not alone, across the United States there
are agencies like ours and unlike ours. They are like us in that they
are driven by the passion of a vision of excellence. They accept
nothing as being ``good enough'' if a better solution might break
through to a higher quality of service to children and families,
achieving better outcomes. They are like us because they reach out to
community partners, to child development professionals, to family
service workers to help them improve. They are like us because their
locus of control is on achieving their own super demanding standards,
not on meeting someone else's minimums.
They are not like us in that their approach to the future is
different. Their look through their kaleidoscope is shaped by the needs
of the children and families they serve, and is shaped by the resources
present, and the resources absent in their community. Their vision has
power because it is their vision.
Excellence in all of Head Start Should Be Our Aspiration
One of the opportunities that Head Start Reauthorization offers is
to focus not only on remediating or replacing poorly performing
agencies, but on building on the strengths of our best agencies. We
must recognize and reward those who excel. We should develop a
monitoring system that gives grades of ``A'' and ``B'' as well as C, D
and F. We must require regional offices of ACF to ensure the
improvement of all Head Start grantees with which they have been
entrusted. As was done in last year's Senate bill, we should make an
investment in having the best among the Head Start grantees contribute
to the improvement of other Head Start programs, early childhood
programs and public schools serving young children. Excellence is a
virus we want everyone to catch!
The opportunity for excellence is ours. We ask that Congress join
with us to use our nation's excellent Head Start programs as an asset
to help all Head Start programs become the best that they can be.
______
Statement of Ann Pagliaro, Executive Director, Head Start of Eastern
Orange County, Newburgh, NY, Submitted for the Record
On behalf of the children, families, and staff of Head Start of
Eastern Orange County, I am extremely pleased to be able to submit this
testimony about our efforts at becoming a model Head Start program. We
are a relatively new grantee, now in our third year of providing high
quality services to children and families here in Newburgh, NY.
Currently we serve 227 children and families, in a range of different
program options, including some full-day, full-year services. We have a
wonderful school building and office space, purchased in part with
federal funds, well-qualified teachers (all of our lead teachers have
at least a bachelor's degree), and caring staff. Our program is fully
enrolled, with a long waitlist, and our child outcome and family
outcome data shows children and families make incredible progress
through their participation in Head Start. We have an active and
engaged board of directors and policy council, both of whom help ensure
we provide high quality services to children and families.
Our path to this point has been a long and winding one. Just five
years ago, most of our current staff was part of a larger agency that
had not filed an audit in several years, and where the executive
leadership was unable to clearly account for all Head Start funds. At
the program level, our staff did the best possible job they could
considering the circumstances, but we labored in poor facilities, often
without the funds we needed to fully equip and outfit the classrooms.
Through the federal review process, the previous agency was identified
as deficient, and, under extreme pressure, voted to relinquish the Head
Start grant for Newburgh.
In that dark moment our new agency was born. The programmatic
leadership staff, parents, and community leaders created Head Start of
Eastern Orange County to submit the required Head Start RFP to become
the replacement grantee. We formed new partnerships, worked closely
with the community, recruited a diversely talented board and were
eventually awarded the grant. In short order, we were able negotiate a
lease for a beautiful new facility that actually provided much better
classrooms for less cost than we were previously paying. We brought in
certified trainers to help us implement our research-based curriculum,
and we went about installing and using a child information system and
on-line child outcome tracking system so we could electronically manage
all aspects of our program. We were able to expand our programming to
offer summer and after-school services for eligible families for the
first time.
As important as these programming changes have been, we are most
proud of the cultural change we have created throughout our new agency.
We have succeeded in building a culture focused on performance,
feedback, and continuous improvement. All staff has clear performance
indicators in their job descriptions, are regularly evaluated, and are
compensated based on their success. Staff also has many opportunities
to give management feedback, in terms of upward evaluations of their
supervisor, and ideas for how we can improve every aspect of our
program. Each year, we develop a Balanced Score Card for our program
identifying clear targets for improving the quality of services
delivered. We work incredibly hard to track all information in our
child and family database, and then use this data, in the classroom,
with family advocates, and with staff, to help us make important and
informed program decisions.
One example of our use of data and focus on management has been
home reading by parents. This past year, based on our Head Start self-
assessment and child outcomes data, we identified increasing reading at
home as a key goal for the year. We set the goal of working with
families to ensure at least 50% read nightly with their children and
another 30% read at least weekly. We then devised a system to monitor
this information on our family information database. Our monthly
``Manage By Information'' report shows that we have now met our goal
for night and weekly reading. Best of all, our Spring child outcome
data shows the results of our work: reading was the item that showed
one of the largest gains from the Fall, with more than a 20% increase.
In short, our focus on management, patterning with parents, and using
data to make decisions, has led to higher quality services, and,
ultimately, changed lives.
One key way we have been able to reach our goals is through a
partnership we formed from the first days of our new agency with
Acelero Learning. Acelero provides on-site coaching and feedback,
technology and tools, and network support for all our managers and
leaders. Our Acelero partner is an experienced manager and has led our
efforts at implementing a child information and child outcome system,
helped devise our performance evaluation system, and helps all our
managers develop as effective leaders. Each of our coordinators knows
their individual content area, where they have worked for years.
Acelero has built on that capacity by helping us all develop our skills
as effective manager's that use data to make decisions and work to
build a culture of feedback and performance improvement. Our
partnership works because it is intensive, focused and on going. The
work of managing a Head Start program never takes a break, and neither
does our partnership with Acelero. As partners, we have worked through
all of the challenges that we have faced on a daily and weekly basis. I
know we would not be where we are today with out them.
Our entire program believes deeply in the comprehensive nature of
the Head Start program and its power to change lives. We have seen the
power of the Head Start performance standards as a guide and beacon for
providing high quality services. We have seen them work in practice,
every day, in Newburgh. That is why it is so difficult for us to have
100 children and families on a waitlist, and more who are interested,
who we cannot serve. To that end, any effort to make more funds
available to programs that have a waitlist, and are providing high
quality services, would be appreciated. I assure you, these funds would
be used, immediately, to help more children and families get a Head
Start on school, and in life. Thank you.
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