ACF OPRE: Evaluation Data Coordination Project (EDCP)

EARLY HEAD START EVALUATION AND TRACKING PRE–K (TPK) FOLLOW-UP

Purpose

The Early Head Start (EHS) program is a comprehensive, two-generation program that provides intensive services that begin before children are born and focus on enhancing children’s development and supporting families during the critical first 3 years of life. Early Head Start programs are designed to produce outcomes in children’s development (including health, resiliency, social competence, and cognitive and language development); family development (including parenting and relationships with children, the home environment and family functioning, family health, parental involvement, and economic self-sufficiency); staff development (including professional development and relationships with parents); and community development (including enhanced child care quality, community collaboration, and integration of services to support families with young children). A two-phase national evaluation was launched to examine the impacts of the EHS program. The first phase (birth to 3; 1996–2001) involved five types of studies, including an impact study of children ages 0 to 3 and focused on child and family development outcomes. The second phase (pre-kindergarten follow-up; 2001–2004) involved the TPK longitudinal follow-up of the EHS study children and families from the program and control groups as the children were entering kindergarten to answer policy-relevant questions related to child experiences after EHS.

The EHS and TPK evaluations had two overarching goals:

To understand the extent to which the EHS intervention can be effective for infants and toddlers and their low-income families
To understand what kinds of programs and services can be effective for children and families with different characteristics living in varying circumstances and served by programs with varying approaches

To reach the goals of the evaluation, the study asked four key questions:

How do EHS programs affect child, parent, and family outcomes?
How do different program approaches and community contexts affect these outcomes?
How do program implementation and services affect outcomes?
How do the characteristics of children and families affect outcomes?

For more information:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2002, June). Making a difference in the lives of infants and toddlers and their families: The impacts of Early Head Start. Volume I: Final technical report. Washington, DC: Author. Available at

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/ehs/ehs_resrch/reports/impacts_vol1/impacts_vol1_title.html;

http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/;

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/index.html

Agencies/Institutions

The birth-to-3 phase of the EHS evaluation (1996–2001) was funded by the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contractor for the evaluation is Mathematica Policy Research (MPR) and the subcontractor is the Center for Children and Families at Columbia University, Teachers College. The TPK follow-up phase (2001–2004) is also funded by the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Mathematica Policy Research is the contractor. In 1997, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) provided funds (through ACYF) to add a major study of the fathers of EHS children.

Research/Survey Design

The birth-to-3 phase (1996–2001) of the EHS evaluation included 3,001 families in 17 program sites randomly assigned to the EHS program or to a control group. The birth-to-3 EHS evaluation was a longitudinal study that included five types of studies:

An implementation study examined service needs and service use for low-income families with infants and toddlers to assess program implementation, understand programs’ theories of change, illuminate pathways to achieving quality, examine program contributions to community change, and identify and explore variations across sites. This study examined the level to which programs had implemented the Head Start Program Performance Measures by 1997 and 1999. Sources of data included three rounds of site visits, program documents, self-administered staff surveys, and application and enrollment forms. Round 1 site visits occurred in summer and fall 1996. Round 2 site visits occurred in fall 1997. Round 3 site visits occurred in summer 1999.
An impact evaluation analyzed the effects of Early Head Start programs on children, parents, and families in depth, using an experimental design; descriptive analyses will assess outcomes for program staff and communities. The evaluation occurred in 17 sites purposively selected to reflect all EHS programs. From these sites, 3,001 families were randomly assigned to participate in Early Head Start or a control group. Control group families could use other services in the community. Data were collected from multiple sources to determine how participation in Early Head Start affects children and their families. There were direct child assessments, observations of the parent-child relationships and the home environment, parent interviews about child and family functioning, and family service use information. A study of the fathers of EHS children was also included to study the development of fathers’ roles, document the fathers’ interactions with their children and with the children’s mothers, and learn how fathers influence children’s development.
Local research studies were undertaken by local university-based researchers who partnered with EHS programs to learn more about the pathways to desired outcomes for infants and toddlers, parents and families, staff, and communities.
Policy studies responded to information needs in areas of emerging policy-relevant issues, including welfare reform, fatherhood, child care, and children with disabilities.
Formats for continuous program improvement guided all EHS programs in formative evaluation.

The pre-kindergarten follow-up phase (TPK; 2001–2004) is the longitudinal follow-up of the EHS children and their families from the program and control groups as the children were entering kindergarten. The outcome measures largely parallel the domains of children’s development and parenting, fathers, and observations of child care and other program settings as assessed in the early years. During this phase, MPR is coordinating the data collection that 15 university research partners are conducting in the 17 sites, entering the data, and creating data files for the Early Head Start Research Consortium to use.

For more information:

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/ehs/ehs_resrch/reports/impacts_vol1/impacts_vol1_title.html;

http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/;

http://www.acf.hh.gov/programs/opre/index.html

Date(s)/Periodicity

The birth-to-3 phase of the EHS evaluation began in October 1996 and concluded in September 2001. The TPK follow-up phase began in October 2001 and is scheduled to conclude in September 2004. Three sets of site visits occurred for the implementation study: Round 1 was in summer and fall of 1996; round 2 was in fall 1997; and Round 3 was in summer 1999. Direct child assessments, observations of parent-child relationships and the home environment, observations of nonmaternal child care settings, parent interviews, and family service use information were used for the impact study. The direct child assessments, observations of parent-child relationships and the home environment, observations of non-maternal child care settings, and parent interviews occurred when children were 14, 24, and 36 months old. Family service use, health status, and employment-related outcomes were assessed 7, 16, and 28 months after program intake and when families exited EHS. Father interviews and videotapes of father-child interactions occurred when the children were 24 and 36 months old.

For more information:

Population/Sample

The EHS and TPK follow-up was implemented in 17 EHS programs in all regions of the country. Programs offered center-based, home-based, and mixed-approach services. The families and children who participated in the evaluation were diverse. Many of the families were single-parent, were ethnically diverse (including Hispanic, African American, and white), did not speak English as their primary language, had relatively low educational attainment, and were receiving public assistance of some kind (e.g., Medicaid, WIC, food stamps, AFDC or TANF, and SSI benefits).

Response rates to the various data sources were as follows:

Data Source	Program Group	Control Group	Combined Sample
PSI* at 6 months	83.9	79.3	81.6
PSI at 15 months	76.1	74.4	75.2
PSI at 26 months	71.1	67.9	69.5

PI** at 14 months	79.1	77.1	78.1
PI 24 at months	73.9	70.4	72.2
PI 36 at months	73.2	67.4	70.3

Bayley at 14 months	64.2	61.2	62.7
Bayley at 24 months	61.5	57.1	59.4
Bayley at 36 months	58.1	52.4	55.3

VA*** at 14 months	66.5	65.2	65.8
VA at 24 months	62.2	57.5	59.9
VA at 36 months	57.8	52.7	55.3

*PSI = Parent Service Interview
**PI = Parent Interview
***VA = Video Assessment

For more information:

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/ehs/ehs_resrch/reports/impacts_vol1/impacts_vol1_title.html

Content Covered

The data will provide a rich source of information on a wide range of topics of interest to policymakers, educators, and developmental psychologists. Topics that will be investigated and reported on include the use of services both in and out of Early Head Start; progress toward economic self-sufficiency; family health; children’s health; children’s development; child care; parental involvement; parenting processes; school readiness; family functioning; father-child relationship and the role of fathers in children’s lives; and program characteristics.

For more information:

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/ehs/ehs_resrch/reports/impacts_vol1/impacts_vol1_title.html

Availability of Data for Public Use

ACF will make the EHS evaluation data files available through two channels. ICPSR at the University of Michigan will have a public use file ready by early 2004, and a more complete data file will be available on a restricted-use basis through the Murray Center at Radcliffe College.

Reference List for Users’ Guide, Codebooks, Methodology Report(s)

A number of reports are available on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/ehs/ehs_resrch/index.html

The reports include the following:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2002, December). Pathways to quality and full implementation in Early Head Start Programs. Washington, DC: Author.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2002, June). Making a difference in the lives of infants and toddlers and their families: The impacts of Early Head Start. Executive summary. Washington, DC: Author.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2002, June). Making a difference in the lives of infants and toddlers and their families: The impacts of Early Head Start. Volume I: Final technical report. Washington, DC: Author.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2002, June). Making a difference in the lives of infants and toddlers and their families: The impacts of Early Head Start. Volume II: Final technical report appendixes. Washington, DC: Author.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2002, June). Making a difference in the lives of infants and toddlers and their families: The impacts of Early Head Start. Volume III: Local contributions to understanding programs and their impacts. Washington, DC: Author.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001, June). Building their futures: How Early Head Start programs are enhancing the lives of infants and toddlers in low-income families. Volume I: Technical report. Washington, DC: Author.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001, June). Building their futures: How Early Head Start Programs are enhancing the lives of infants and toddlers in low-income families. Volume II: Technical report, appendixes. Washington, DC: Author.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001, June). Building their futures: How Early Head Start programs are enhancing the lives of infants and toddlers in low-income families. Summary report. Washington, DC: Author.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (1999, December). Leading the way: Characteristics and early experience of selected Early Head Start programs. Volume I: Cross-site perspectives. Washington, DC: Author.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2000, December). Leading the way: Characteristics and early experience of selected Early Head Start programs. Volume II: Program profiles. Washington, DC: Author.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2000, December). Leading the way: Characteristics and early experience of selected Early Head Start programs. Volume III: Program implementation. Washington, DC: Author.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2000, December). Leading the way: Characteristics and early experience of selected Early Head Start programs. Executive summary, Volumes I, II, and III. Washington, DC: Author.

For other papers, please refer to the Early Head Start Collection of Consortium-Written Research Articles and Reports located at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/ehs/ehs_resrch/index.html

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