Head Start Program Evaluation

Launched in the year 1965, the Head Start program cultivates preparedness for school among kids from poor backgrounds by providing them with social, nutritional, educational, health and other relevant services. Ever since its introduction, the program has catered to over 33 million early childhood-age kids (0-5 years of age) and their family members. Figures for 2015 revealed program funding to cater to almost a million expectant mothers and early childhood-age kids at home, educational facilities, and family childcare homes within rural, urban, and suburban communities across America. The program's advantages are being closely scrutinized in the wake of congressional talks to consider reauthorizing it. How successful has the program been? Are there any areas for improvement? This paper will assume the form of a critical analysis and summary of the program; its implications will help inform formal discussions on the subject. Considerable controversy exists regarding whether or not the program has any long-term advantages, tracing back to the days of its inception. The analysis has gleaned mixed, although largely positive, proofs pertaining to the program's long-term advantages (Barnett & Hustedt, 2005).

Answers to Questions

Intermediate Outcome Measures

S. No

Measure

Explanation

Unit of Measurement

1

Personnel Performance

Routinely implement performance assessment. This has been recognized as a clear strategy, indicating an interactive assessment technique incorporating the 'appraisee' and appraiser in establishing feasible annual professional goals and work plans. Formats for performance assessment are both job-specific (i.e., associated with individual roles) and generic (related to overall corporate objectives).

One task or job a day

2

Charging fees

Fees ought to recover total costs of delivering services, including direct organizational and activity connected expenses and a suitable share of support or overheads.

One patient's expenses

3

Budget Tracking

Sources of funds and expenditure ought to be adequately traced at a unique level.

One area tracked

4

Answerability

Greater emphasis on accountability and benchmarks will probably have an impact on Head Start's future. A sound system in this regard will be able to assess and collect information linking program implementer activities to outcomes achieved (Manna, Vinovskis, & Haskins, 2012).

One individual responsible

5

Cultural Modifications

Head Start's facilities are required to develop "ethnic pride," besides having in place an appropriate Programme that reflects the aided population's requirements (bicultural/bilingual, multi-ethnic and so forth). As some disagreement exists regarding whether early childhood bilingual education eventually facilitates or hampers English language acquisition, the empirical question deals with whether these programs of Head Start prove more beneficial compared to other preschools that don't mandate bilingual instruction (Currie & Thomas, 1996).

One problem dealt with monthly

6

Structural Modifications

African-American kids in Head Start reportedly exhibited greater attentiveness, lesser structured learning issues, and improved interactions and relationships with fellow students and educators (Westat, 2010).

A single patient daily

7

Allotment of Time

Programs reveal managers' lack of adequate time to commit to I am Moving/ I am Learning. This can hamper effective implementation.

Allotment of 1 hour allocated

8

Networking or establishing contacts /

Roughly 550 facilities of Head Start were contacted by researchers for ascertaining whether there was room for fictitious kids. Most facilities cited a lack of open slots for enrollment; however, they did have waiting lists for every program requirement (Kutz, 2010).

1 new contact every day

9

Material Support

Most courses performed activities in evaluation planning and objective establishment, recruitment and personnel training, documented plans and assistance, community partnership forging and acquisition of equipment and material for supporting the implementation of I am Moving/ I am Learning. (Brandeis University)

Implementation of a pre-planned activity

10

Customer Satisfaction

A small number of major disparities were discovered between Head Start educators and educators for the control group, with regard to educator qualification measures including tenure, educational preparation, certification, and educational attainment, or job satisfaction measures in KG-Grade 1 (Westat, 2010).

One client hourly

Final Outcome Measures

S. No

Measure

Explanation

Unit of Measurement

1

Strategic Planning

Not many significant variances were discovered between Head Start educators and control group educators with regard to educator qualification measures including tenure, educational preparation, certification, and educational attainment, or job satisfaction measures in KG-Grade 1 (Evaluating Head Start, 2005)

Appointing a single educator per 10 students to guarantee comprehensive preparedness

2

Outcome Measure

Teachers and research scholars explain the impact of everyday child experiences on learning capacity, and analyze outcomes using competing pre-schooling theories.

Five hours' activity time daily

3

Outcome Budget

Finance requirements continue to be a key concern for promising and striving to attain desired outcomes, including increased allotment of budget or implementing separate grants and loan-reliefs for aiding pupils in pursuing degrees.

Ten percent continuous expenditure/quarter decline till the target is achieved

4

Management of Work Processes

Educators' receptiveness to consultation is associated closely with implementation fidelity. These outcomes lead scholars to recommend educator training as vital to Research-based, Developmentally-Informed (REDI) success (Evaluating Head Start, 2005)

A thirty-percent process time decrease over the course of the succeeding four months

5

Outcome Evaluation

Within the program, distinct limited experimental program enhancement assessments directed at various child outcomes including overweightness and socio-emotional abilities have considerable positive effects after 1-2 years (Evaluating Head Start, 2005)

Enhance ten new kids' social skills in a month

6

Outcome Reporting

Handling bad reports. For instance, programs reveal managers' lack of adequate time to commit to I am Moving/ I am Learning. This can hamper effective implementation. (Evaluating Head Start, 2005)

Ten percent manager performance improvement

7

Completion of Service

Stressing the significance of customized service delivery depending on children's linguistic and cultural/ethnic backgrounds, and regard for children belonging to different linguistic and cultural/ethnic groups (Westat, 2010).

Comprehensive success in personalized childcare

8

Numeric Counts and Outcome Presentation

The research integrates a nation-wide representative program sample, ensuring outcome generalizability to the overall Head Start initiative, rather than only to certain child and program samples (Westat, 2010). Therefore, presenting numerical outcomes is imperative.

New skills acquisition by ten new kids a month.

9

Standardized Measures

Head Start explores average program effect, representing the complete array of quality and intensity and compliance with set Head Start standards (Westat, 2010).

A seven percent overall intelligence quotient growth among second grade students

10

LoF (Level of Functioning) scales

Head Start is lacking in the kind of financial backing needed to generate adequate quality and intensity levels attained by better funded example initiatives. This directly impacts their efficacy; this element hasn't been examined further.

A ten-percentage-point decrease in efficiency disparities between a funded educational institution and Head Start in the current academic year.

Recommendations:

Academic skills are being increasingly stressed upon, and with good reason. Researchers reveal that kids from poorer backgrounds enter lower kindergarten 1-1.5 years behind middle-class kids in cognitive abilities, including linguistic abilities. Head Start ought to offer at least some measure of the atmosphere that poor homes lack. Numbers, letters, reading-and-following etc. are activities upper and middle class families frequently teach their kids; however, just as often, kids from poor backgrounds are deprived of this instruction. Middle class kids are academically superior because of their number-counting and alphabet-writing abilities. Researchers reveal that early childhood motivation to study may be undermined by didactic institutional tactics. Kids need to be able to read for as long as they desire to ensure they identify alphabets.

A few leading economists are prompting states to prioritize preschool financing via Head Start. Whenever kids acquire any skill, they will be more likely to easily acquire further skills. Also, younger children have before them a bigger horizon for recovering the fruits of their labor.

References

Barnett, S., & Hustedt, J. (2005). Head Start's Lasting Benefits. Infants & Young Children, 16 - 24.

Brandeis University. (n.d.). Head Start Research Findings. Diversity Data Kids.

Currie, J., & Thomas, D. (1996). Does Head Start Help Hispanic Children? National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

(2005). Evaluating Head Start. CQ Press.

Kutz, G. (2010). Undercover Testing Finds Fraud and Abuse at Selected Head Start Centers. United States Government Accountability Office.

Manna, P., Vinovskis, M., & Haskins, R. (2012). Head Start in an Era of Standards and Accountability. ACF.

Westat. (2010). Head Start Impact Study. Washington DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation.