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Section I

Introduction to the Study

Families have played an essential role in the Head Start philosophy since the inception of the program. In July 1996, the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF), in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), initiated a national effort to develop a descriptive profile of families participating in the Head Start program. Shortly thereafter, ACYF combined this project with a second initiative to develop, test, and refine Program Performance Measures for Head Start. This combined effort is known as the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES).

The project was conducted under contracts with Abt Associates Inc. (with The CDM Group, Inc. as their subcontractor) to collect descriptive information on Head Start staff and families (Contract 105-96-1930) and Westat (with Xtria, formerly known as Ellsworth Associates, Inc., as their subcontractor) to establish a Performance Measures Center that would develop performance measures and collect assessment information on Head Start classrooms and children (Contract 105-96-1912). Data were collected from a nationally representative sample of Head Start children and their parents in fall 1997 and during the spring of each year through 2001. Across all waves of data collection, the FACES sample included more than 3200 children and their parents enrolled in 40 Head Start programs.1  Participating Head Start staff, including Program Directors, Component Coordinators, Center Directors, and Family Service Workers from over 160 centers, were interviewed one time each, while Classroom Teachers were interviewed once and completed a self-administered questionnaire each year they had study children in their classrooms. As part of the ongoing process of monitoring Head Start, a second cohort of programs and families was selected under the Performance Measures Center contract and the data collection known as FACES 2000 was initiated in fall 2000. This report provides information on the original cohort of Head Start families at the time of their Head Start experiences, as well as information about Head Start staff.

Purposes of the Study

Head Start FACES, guided by the national program’s performance objectives, was designed to provide a comprehensive overview of the Head Start program from a variety of perspectives. The broad purposes of the study were to:

• Assess Head Start’s role in enhancing child development and school readiness;
• Assess Head Start’s role in strengthening families;
• Assess Head Start’s role in providing quality services in the areas of education, health, nutrition, and social services; and
• Determine how Head Start classroom quality is related to child outcomes.

This technical report is focused on Head Start families, and provides descriptions of the characteristics and experiences of children and families served by Head Start grantees, information about individual programs, and their staff, as well as information on the communities in which Head Start provides services. This includes information about several key areas:

• The demographic characteristics of families and children enrolled in Head Start;
• The family, home, and neighborhood environments of children enrolled in Head Start;
• The home-based activities and experiences of families and their children while enrolled in Head Start;
• The activities and experiences of children while participating in Head Start;
• The involvement of parents in Head Start activities and their satisfaction with the program;
• The staffing patterns as well as the responsibilities, qualifications, and training of staff involved in management of Head Start activities for families and children;
• Head Start programs’ approaches related to recruitment and enrollment of children; and
• Barriers to the provision of needed services as perceived by families and program staff.

Head Start Growth and Challenges

During the period from 1990 through 1999, the Head Start program budget grew from approximately $1.5 billion to $5.5 billion annually. Over that time, Head Start Program Information Reports (PIR) indicated that the number of enrolled children jumped from 540,930 to 826,016, a 53% increase. Further, the proportion of children being served in full-day sessions, including classrooms that were open year-round, increased from 21% of actual enrollment served in full-day classrooms in 1993-1994 to 26% during 1997-1998 (ACYF: 1990, 1991, 1992b, 1993, 1994, 1995b, 1996, 1997, 1998a, 1999). At the same time, the Head Start program has undertaken a major effort to improve program quality through revised Program Performance Standards and by supporting local programs’ efforts to improve staff salaries and benefits while adding requirements for classroom staff to obtain or enter employment with a college degree.

Perhaps the most dramatic shift in Head Start demographics has been the increased enrollment of Hispanic families and children. In Head Start, as in the United States as a whole, recent population growth among families of Hispanic heritage has been greater than for any other ethnic group. Between 1994 and 1999, Head Start enrollment increased by 85,523 and the percentage of Hispanic children enrolled increased from 22% to 28% of total enrollment (Exhibit 1-1). The number of Hispanic children increased by 68,945 over that 5-year period (or 81% of the total increase). These increases occurred across the nation, making it necessary for Head Start programs to employ more bilingual staff and to provide outreach and services to families where the home language was often exclusively Spanish.

Exhibit 1-1

Head Start Enrollment Increases by Ethnicity:
Data from the 1994-1999 Program Information Reports

Ethnicity	Total Increase 1994-99	Percentage Increase 1994-99
Black	17,103	6.2
White	-3,122	-1.2
Hispanic	68,945	42.9
American Indian	947	3.5
Asian/Pacific Islander	1,910	8.1
All Children	85,523	11.5

 

Head Start Families

The characteristics of enrolled families, including their strengths and needs, have been important concerns for Head Start since the program's inception. Among the original objectives for Head Start, as outlined in Recommendations for a Head Start Program in February 1965, was an intent to foster constructive opportunities for society to work together with poor families in solving their problems (Cooke, 1965). The Cooke Panel also envisioned a comprehensive program that would:

• Identify the needs of children and their families, identify programs to meet those needs, and help families get involved in and make appropriate use of those programs;
• Make known existing social service resources and encourage families to make use of them; and
• Ensure that families continue to obtain help as needed.

The Cooke Panel clearly recognized that low-income families were not a homogeneous group, having a range of strengths and needs. Since that time, both the characteristics and social environments of low-income families have become increasingly diverse, placing new demands upon Head Start programs. Thirty years after the Cooke Panel set forth its vision for Head Start, the Board on Children, Youth and Families of the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences issued a report, Beyond the Blueprint: Directions for Head Start Research (Phillips & Cabrera, 1996), that echoed many of the same themes. Noting that the conditions of poverty have changed dramatically in the past three decades, the report suggested that ACYF consider research initiatives in a variety of areas. The initiatives recommended by the panel included:

• Obtaining an accurate profile of the characteristics of families participating in the nation's largest program serving preschool children;
• Describing the diversity of cultures and languages represented by families enrolled in Head Start, parents' educational and cultural backgrounds, and the mix of cultures and instruction in Head Start classrooms;
• Creating a profile of family employment status and child care needs, and the relationships among Head Start program variations and parents' employment opportunities;
• Documenting the prevalence and degree to which Head Start children, families, and staff are exposed to domestic and community violence, and the perceptions of parents and staff regarding Head Start's role in violence intervention; and
• Examining Head Start's impact on other community services and institutions, while highlighting systemic barriers to efforts to improve the well-being of families living in poverty.

With the advent of recent changes in distribution of public assistance and management of health care, the circumstances of low-income families are particularly important to track. Head Start is being called on to lead the response to the changing needs of families moving from welfare to work, including the increased need for child care, requests for support in improving job-related skills, and flexibility for involving parents with demanding schedules. In addition, Head Start programs that rely on networks of community providers of health and social services may need to adjust the mechanisms of service delivery or take on more direct service provision. The current climate of change presents challenges to Head Start programs and families alike, and makes gaining a better understanding of program services and family needs imperative at this time.

Head Start Program Performance Measures

Head Start FACES has allowed the Head Start Bureau to move toward its goal of implementing a system of program performance measures. These measures grew out of the requirements of the 1994 Head Start Act and the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (Public Law 103-62). The Head Start Act, as amended May, 1994, Sec. 641A(b)(1), required Head Start to "develop methods and procedures for measuring the quality and effectiveness of programs." The measures were to be designed to "identify strengths and weaknesses in the operations of Head Start programs nationally and by region, and to identify problem areas that may require additional training and technical assistance resources." With regard to research, demonstrations, and evaluations, Section 649(d) (1) of the Act further mandated Head Start to permit ongoing assessment of the quality and effectiveness of programs and to contribute by developing knowledge concerning factors associated with the quality and effectiveness of Head Start programs and by identifying ways in which the services provided may be improved. In particular, special consideration was to be given to longitudinal studies that "examine the developmental progress of children and their families during and following participation in a Head Start program." This information also is needed to satisfy the requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993 (Public Law 103-62), which required all Federal agencies to:

• Develop strategic plans;
• Prepare annual performance plans that set out the agency's performance goals; and
• Report annually on actual performance compared to goals.

In response to GPRA and its 1994 reauthorization legislation, the Head Start Bureau completed a revision of the Head Start Program Performance Standards (published in 1996 and took effect in January, 1998) and continues to report regularly on the Program Performance Measures, which are based upon the empirical data from FACES and other sources. The legislative provision calling for the review was inspired by the recommendations contained in Creating a 21st Century Head Start, the December 1993 report of the Advisory Committee on Head Start Quality and Expansion (1993). In the opening paragraph of the research section of their report, the Advisory Committee on Head Start Quality and Expansion stated:

“Head Start has entered a historic period of reexamination, improvement in quality, and expansion of services. The size of the program, its comprehensive services, the diversity of the population it serves, and the fact that it is Federally funded suggest a role for Head Start as a national laboratory for best practices in early childhood and family support services in low-income communities. Because Head Start needs to expand and renew itself in order to assume its role as a state-of-the-art 'technology,' there is a concomitant and compelling need for a new, expanded, and formal role for Head Start research (page 1, 1993).”

The Program Performance Measures were intended to be a set of criteria for assessing how well the Head Start program, as a whole, is fulfilling its primary mission of improving the social competence or school readiness of young children from low-income families nationwide, as well as the related objective of helping low-income families to attain their educational, economic, and child-rearing goals. ACYF brought together a wide variety of expert advisers in 1995, and their report recommended specific performance measures in the areas of health, education, partnerships with families, and program management that should be included in the Program Performance Measures system (ACYF, 1995a). The recommended measures require not only the use of existing record keeping systems, such as the Head Start PIR, but also suggested the implementation of new data collection mechanisms for interviewing representative samples of Head Start parents, observing representative samples of Head Start classrooms and home-based programs in operation, and assessing the development and behavior of representative samples of Head Start children. These data collection strategies are to be conducted on an ongoing, regular basis to allow Head Start to monitor changes in program performance over time.

In 1996, the Head Start Bureau established the Performance Measures Center (PMC). The primary function of the PMC was to move the program performance measures to national scale by drawing a national probability sample of Head Start programs, centers, children, and families, gathering data from these samples using valid, recognized instruments, analyzing the collected data, and reporting on the results. This work included developing a battery of measures that fit under five objectives that supported the development of social competence and school readiness. These five objectives are:

• Enhance children's growth and development;
• Strengthen families as the primary nurturers of their children;
• Provide children with educational, health and nutritional services;
• Link children and families to needed community services; and
• Ensure well-managed programs that involve parents in decision-making.

These objectives also reflect the key components of the Head Start program, in terms of child outcomes and services for families. FACES was the initial attempt to implement Program Performance Measures on a national scale.

Conceptual Framework

A conceptual model is a useful means of illustrating a research project's objectives in the appropriate context of a program's activities and information needs. The model developed to drive the Head Start Family Study (Exhibit 1-2) theorized that Head Start programs serve a population of families with diverse characteristics, strengths, and needs. The Family Context box contains examples of areas of diversity, such as ethnicity, parent education, parent employment, housing, family health status, and exposure to crime, violence, and other health risks within the household and community.

The Head Start Experiences box lists program activities designed to promote the immediate, short-term, and long-term goals Head Start has for its children and families. For children, this experience includes not only preschool education, but also health and nutrition services. For parents, the activities involve opportunities for participation in policy and program decisions, as well as involvement with children in the classroom and in the home, parent education, the promotion of family self-sufficiency, and facilitating families in gaining access to needed community services.

The objectives listed in the Immediate Goals box are those assessed by the Program Performance Measures. While these objectives primarily include contributing to the development of children who are ready to succeed in school, they also include several goals that are parent and family oriented, such as helping families move towards economic and social self-sufficiency. These immediate goals lead logically to the achievement of the objectives listed in the Short-Term Goals box -- that is, the successful transition of children into kindergarten, as well as the further achievement of family self-sufficiency through productive employment and involvement with the community.

Finally, the Head Start program is intended to produce progress towards Long-Term Goals (not shown in Exhibit 1-2 because they are beyond the scope of this study), including continued educational and developmental success of the child, parents' positive involvement in the child's activities, and long-term self-sufficiency of the family.

Exhibit 1-2

The Conceptual Model for the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES)

Family Context       Home language Ethnicity Cultural traditions English-language literacy Parent education Employment s kills Employment opportunities Housing conditions and availability Nutrition and diet Medical, dental, and mental health status Alcohol, tobacco, and substance use status Exposure to crime and violence

Head Start Experience For Preschool Children: Preschool education Health screenings and examinations Nutritionally adequate meals For Parents: Participation in policy and program decisions Opportunities for classroom participation Active involvement with the education and development of their children Opportunities for parent education Potential opportunities for career and training in early childhood education field Promotion of adult literacy Promotion of family self-sufficiency Available case management, assessment, and crisis intervention services Program sponsored advocacy for necessary family-focused social services

Immediate Goals           Parents and children satisfied with Head Start Parents ready for active involvement in child’s education and development Families competent to identify needs and deal with the social service system Families moving toward self-sufficiency Children who are socially competent and ready to succeed in school

Short-Term Goals                 Successful transition of children to kindergarten Self-sufficient and independent families Parents with ability to care for and nurture child’s development

 

Overview of the Design of the Study

The design of FACES called for six rounds of data collection (view Instruments). During spring 1997, a field test of the data collection procedures was conducted with a nationally representative, random sample of 2,400 families from approximately 160 centers in 40 Head Start programs. The selection of programs was stratified on geographic region (Northeast, South, Midwest, West), urbanicity (urban, rural), and proportion of minority families in the program (above or below 50%).

The initial data collection for the full-scale study took place in the fall of 1997 at the same 40 programs. A total of 3,600 families were selected for participation, with approximately 30% of the families returning from the field test. The remaining families in the study were randomly selected from among those with children entering Head Start for the first time in fall 1997.

The fall 1997 (October-November) and spring 1998 (April-June) data collections included interviews with staff and parents, classroom observations, direct child assessments, and indirect assessments of children by teachers and parents. The third data collection period was spring 1999. Families participating in the full-scale study that began in fall 1997 were tracked whether they entered kindergarten in fall 1998 or continued to attend Head Start or other preschools. Again, the data collection included staff and parent interviews, classroom observations for children remaining in Head Start, direct child assessments, and indirect child assessments by teachers and parents.

The end-of-kindergarten and first-grade follow-up data collections were completed during spring 2000 and spring 2001. Although children were no longer in Head Start, they continued to receive in-person assessments, while their parents were interviewed by telephone and their kindergarten or first grade teachers were asked to complete a brief mail-in questionnaire. The current report focuses on children in the full sample, from entry into the program in fall 1997 through one or two years of Head Start experience. For information on the pilot test see the Performance Measures Center Second Progress Report (ACYF, 1998b). Information on the kindergarten and first grade follow-ups is included in the FACES Technical Report II 2 .

A subgroup of 120 families was identified from the spring and fall 1997 samples for participation in the FACES Case Study. An initial group of 40 families were selected from the field test sample in spring 1997. The remaining 80 families were selected from newly participating families in the fall 1997. All families were followed through spring 1998. The case study data collection required home visits to participating families at each major data collection point as well as a series of monthly contacts between data collection periods. The monthly contacts continued for all families through December 1998.

A second substudy focusing on community agencies used a subset of 10 of the original 40 FACES programs for a systematic investigation designed to further understand the partnerships between Head Start and other service providers in their community. The Head Start programs participating in this substudy were selected to represent the larger FACES sample, meaning they were stratified on geography, rural and urban status, and minority membership. Each of the 10 Head Start programs provided a list of the community service providers with which they had relationships or to whom they referred families. From each program’s list of community agencies, 20 agencies (per program) were selected for telephone interviews, for a total of 200 telephone interviews with community providers overall.

The research questions addressed in this report are shown in Exhibit 1-3, and are taken from the original research questions for The Descriptive Study of Head Start Families. These questions were addressed through multiple data sources and may be included in multiple sections of this report. Some questions were addressed in a separate FACES substudy on recruitment and enrollment, and while the findings from that substudy are presented in a companion report, relevant findings from that report are discussed here.

Exhibit 1-3
The Relationship Between Study Research Questions, Information Types, and Data Sources
Data Sources

Research Questions / Topics	Data Sources
	Section II Families	Section III Staff	Section IV Case Study	Section V Community Agencies	Recruitment & Enrollment Report
What are the demographic characteristics of Head Start families?	X		X
What is the family's previous and current experience with child care and family support services?	X		X
What are the expressed goals and hopes of Head Start families for both parents and children?			X
What are parents' assessments of child's functioning and capabilities?	X	X
What are parents' beliefs, behaviors and satisfaction regarding their child rearing role?			X
What are sources of social support for Head Start families?	X		X
What are the needs and concerns expressed by Head Start families?	X		X
What are parental expectations for Head Start participation and impact?	X		X
What are barriers to full parent participation in Head Start?	X		X
What is the level of parental satisfaction with Head Start?	X		X
What are the procedures used by Head Start programs to recruit and enroll children and families?	X	X		X	X
What are the programs' philosophies, strategies, and approaches for engaging and supporting parents?		X			X
What are Head Start parent involvement and social services staffing patterns?		X
What community resources have Head Start programs utilized to meet the needs of children and their families?		X		X
What are barriers faced by programs in achieving full family participation in Head Start?		X
What program areas are particularly effective in engaging and supporting parents?		X
What are the approaches to facilitation of children's transition to kindergarten?		X	X

 

Organization of the Report

Results of parent, Head Start staff, and community agency staff interviews are presented in this technical report. Findings related to the child assessments and classroom observations (prepared by Westat and Xtria) will be included in the FACES Technical Report II. This report is organized into six sections:

• Section I introduces the study and outlines the report;
• Section II contains information about the families and children drawn from interviews with Head Start parents;
• Section III contains information about the staff and program activities drawn from interviews with Head Start staff;
• Section IV contains the findings from the case study of 120 Head Start families selected from the larger sample;
• Section V contains the findings of the community agency substudy drawn from interviews with community agency administrators; and
• Section VI contains a discussion of the study findings drawn across the entire array of data sources.

---

1A description of the sampling method for selection of Head Start programs and centers is provided in Section II.(back)

2A standard deviation is a measure of the score’s dispersion or variability in a sample. The proportion of scores within a standard deviation unit of the mean score is known. For example, in a normal distribution, 68 percent of all the scores fall between one standard deviation below and one standard deviation above the mean. Thus, scores expressed in standard deviation units enable the user to understand how a child has performed relative to other children in the sample. (back)

 

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