Program Improvement Efforts for Head Start Families to Show More

Head Start Program Improvement Efforts for Families to Show More Parental Engagement and Involvement with Children's Education.

Description of the local problem (The local problem that prompted the study is clearly defined and is discussed in terms of the local setting and the larger population or education situation):

According to the Head Start standards for family engagement and involvement, all Head Start programs must implement the Parent, Family and Community Engagement (PFCE) framework. This is a research-based approach to program change showing how the schools can work with families to improve and promote parent and family engagement and children's learning and development. If this important aspect of the program were omitted, student readiness for kindergarten and sustained development would be at risk. As a result, the Head Start preschool children would not be fully prepared for kindergarten.

The immediate issues, concerns or gaps in this program that need to be addressed include most especially securing additional parental involvement. There is a growing body of evidence that indicates parental involvement relates positively to academic achievement (Chang & Park, 2009). The concern is that children who do not get educational support from their families end up performing poorly in school and also continue to struggle academically throughout their lives. The research to date confirms that children learn and perform better at school with family, school and community support (Epstein, 2001). One of the major constraints concerning the families of interest in this study is that parents are mostly high school dropouts and require a great deal of support financially as well as educationally. The main contextual problem could therefore relate to the potential for poor study habits to be passed from one generation to the next. The lack of education, the lack of work skills and the strong negative effects of the symptoms of poverty all combine to further exacerbate the situation. In this regard, the Head Start organization's mission is to serve the children and their families and improve the lives of the low-income children by providing a quality and comprehensive child development preschool program. These are important issues because fully 90% of Head Start parents earn less than the federal poverty guideline for their families (Ceglowski, 2009). Moreover, there is a growing body of evidence that indicates low-income socioeconomic conditions during early childhood can have profound long-term consequences, reinforcing and sustaining disparities over the lifespan (Anderson, Foster & Frisvold, 2010).

Parental engagement and involvement are critical success factors for Head Start children. The newly implemented mandate for school readiness goals established by the state requires full parental engagement and family partnerships with the schools. If the effectiveness of parental engagement is not achieved, student readiness for school and a lack of academic progress for Head Start children will remain salient issues. This at-risk population will continue to fall behind their peers when they reach grade school, with even more risks and challenges awaiting them down the road academically and later in life.

By any measure, the children served by Head Start are at-risk for a number of reasons. These children have limited exposure to early literacy and many have already fallen behind their peers because their parents have not realized the importance of reading to their children and that early literacy will help prepare the students for kindergarten (McDermott, Rikoon & Waterman, 2012). This study will help bridge the gap for kindergarten readiness, give parents necessary parenting skills, support family well being, build strong relationships between parents and their children, encourage ongoing learning and development for parents and their children and instill a desire to improve their overall educational background and perhaps a desire to go back to school for self-improvement. The relationship of the problem to the larger educational setting as presented in the professional and scholarly literature shows that when the Head Start program was originally developed 1965, the initiative was designed to be a "comprehensive" program intended to assist young children from lower-income families (Gormley, Phillips, Adelstein & Shaw, 2010). The guidelines program objectives for Head Start were designed to include concept s from the fields of health, social services, and education (Gormley et al., 2010).

The learning and work environment for this needs assessment plan is Head Start Schools of Lake County in Illinois. This institution has a population of about 800 students with over 60 -- 70 teachers, 11 site directors, an assistant Head Start Director and a Head Start Director. This is a preschool setting where we attend to the academic needs of at risk children and provide social services for the whole family. The major stakeholders for our Head start schools include the federal government who funds most of the program, the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), the Executive Director, the Head Start director and the assistant Head Start director, parents of the young children, classroom teachers and center directors as well as the Board of Directors. The office of Head Start reported from the Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center that (ECLKC) that, the lack of parental engagement when children are at-risk, other symptoms more than often will include inconsistent nurturing, harsh discipline, and even the lack of attachment to a caring adult. The result of such experiences to the rest of the community could show some lasting consequences including affecting the overall health and well being of the life of the child up to adult hood. It could also result in neglect and abuse therefore affecting the entire community and the in the short and the long run (Office of Head Start, 2009).

2. Rationale of the local problem and Purpose of the study (The rationale for choosing this problem is clearly articulated. The rationale consists of evidence that the problem exists and explains why there is a need to study and address this problem. The purpose or intent of the study is explained):

The local problem that the Head Start community continues to experience can be seen in some areas, including a paucity of parental involvement and engagement which remain lacking. There are monthly reports that demonstrate how the Head Start teachers must document and present information concerning parental involvement as well as collecting in-kind documents that the parents must turn in whenever they volunteer in their child's classrooms. Out of 698 families, enrolled in the Head Start Program, only a small number (approximately 75 families) participate or volunteer in their children's classrooms. More troubling still, classroom teachers sent home lending library books for these families to read to their children and requested they return them to the school's library with their feedback concerning their experiences. All told, the school over 450 books in 2012 that were never returned and many of the parents admitted that they simply had not read to their children. The parent teacher conferences also report very low numbers, with teachers reporting a 25% participation rate for parent teacher conferences. There is a monthly parent meeting scheduled for the families in the different Head Start sites and out of 120 families, just six (or 2%!) attend them regularly. The family developmental specialists are tasked with setting small, reachable goals for the families in order to help them begin the process to get our to poverty, however, these goals are difficult to establish for most of the families and even after some of them are set, again with only about 2% of the families reaching their goals. There are many behavior issues that the classroom teachers experience in the classrooms and it is very hard to set up meetings with the families in order to set up behavior plans with the families. There are many children who experience some learning challenges in the classrooms and it is again very hard to get the families to provide parental consent in order for the children to be observed by the school psychologist to determine if the child needs to have an individualized educational plan (IEP). There are a few parent classes offered by Head Start and sponsored by the local community college that they should take advantage of, but again, the only a couple of the families do attend. These results and patterns when it comes to parent involvement and engagement have not changed in so many years, and only continues to be greater as the economy suffers and the poverty rate grows greater. The majorities of our Head Start families are still not ready to fully become fully involved and fully engaged in their children's education as yet.

In the Family and Community Engagement Framework, the concerns that families are not able to meet their needs, experiencing income and employment difficulties or even facing homelessness are some of the factors that contribute to the lack of parental engagement. If these problems go unattended to, and if the Head Start organization does not implement good parental engagement programs, parent's involvement is likely not to be present. The Head Start children, who are already at-risk, are highly likely to remain less prepared for Kindergarten and may find school difficult, making school success impossible. Society is bound to feel the effects eventually resulting in more negative problems for society. The potential findings of this study will shed some light on the Head Start families and the need for active parental engagement showing a direct link to school success and strengthening family relationships.

In the Head Start Parent, Family and Community Engagement Framework, the concerns that families are not able to meet their needs, experiencing income and employment difficulties or even facing homelessness are some of the factors that contribute to the lack of parental engagement. If these problems go unattended to, and if the Head Start organization does not implement good parental engagement programs, parents' involvement is likely not to be present. The Head Start children, who are already at-risk, are highly likely to remain less prepared for kindergarten and may find school difficult, making school success impossible. Society is bound to feel the effect eventually resulting in more negative problems for society. On a broader scope, further research suggests that Head Start families are not closing the gap for school readiness when poor children are assessed. Reports also show that Head Start are not fully achieving its stated purpose of promoting school readiness when it comes to enhancing social and cognitive development of low-income children. Hence he Head Start reauthorization act was implemented as another attempt to help promote school readiness and family engagement in Head Start families in 2003. The article from strengthening Head Start family's reports that, most children enter and leave Head Start with below -- average skill knowledge levels and also are not getting what they need to succeed in school (Strengthening Head Start, 2003). This report also states that the percentile scores for vocabulary, letter recognition, early writing and mathematics all fall below 35% (strengthening Head Start families 2003). According to the article Parental Involvement, Parenting behaviors, and children's cognitive development in Low Income and Minority Families, Head Start families are associated with inconsistent nurturing, harsh discipline and lack a consistent relationship to a caring adult. The lasting consequences may result in affecting the health and well being, as well as neglect and abuse (ECLKC 2012). The potential findings of this study will shed some light on the Head Start families and the need for active parental engagement showing a direct link to school success and strengthening family relationships.

The local problem for our Head Start children can be seen evidently when the children are assessed before each year in the first 45 days of school. The children are screened with the Dial 4 screening test to assess where they rate developmentally. Some children measure up developmentally according to their age, and some children score significantly low. For those children who might need an individualized educational plan and IEP, most of the time it is next to impossible to get their parents to cooperate with signing documents so the child could be assessed by a licensed psychologist. Some children are assessed and diagnosed with mild to severe speech delays. Some children assessed with major behavior issues and some children are some serious developmental delays. Some of these problems are a result of drug and alcohol abuse, malnutrition, neglect and the lack of prenatal care. Each year when the National report clearly reports that poverty has not decreased. As a matter of fact the reports show that poverty and the effects of poverty increase each year. The problems in the low income community has not changed for a many years, and some of the attitudes of poor parenting still plague's this community. The children of Head Start are considered at-risk because of the socio -- economic status. According to the Head Start standards, the family with two children must make below $10,000 in order to qualify to attend the Head Start program. In today's economy, that is significantly low and not nearly enough to raise a family of three or four. There is a strong correlation between the problems of Head Start families and the lack of parental engagement with the larger educational systems and settings as reported by the article for strengthening Head Start families. This report clearly states Head Start children with multiple risks suffer the greatest educational disadvantage, and as they move on often score low in achievement test scores, experience grade repetition, suspension and even expulsion from schools, as well as a high drop our rate further down the line in high school. This reports also suggest that the Head Start children with two or more risk factors are also three times more likely to fall in the bottom 25% rationing for reading. More risks as suggested by this article shows that in reading and mathematics Head Start children scored in the low 20% rating when compared to other children who did not receive welfare. The bad news again shows up in the Kindergarten grade with a wide gap in the achievement ratings, which follows through elementary school and high school (strengthening Head Start families 2003). The rationale for choosing this topic stems from the fact that, the real mission of Head Start has been missed. The mission of Head Start is designed to give each child a head start, to serve their families and to alleviate the symptoms of poverty. Unfortunately, that mission is not being realized as we continue to do the job in a half way descent manner. The goals to fully prepare the children for Kindergarten are still missed. Most educational journals have reported that the best way to ensure a child's success is to involve the parent in the child's education. Head Start is missing that important piece in the children's education. The recent sequestration passed in June 2013, has affected the funding for Head Start families in so many negative ways. Approximately 5% of the funding was taken away from he Head Start fiscal year budget and therefore resulted in a cut in the areas of transportation for some families who are not privileged to provide daily transportation for their child to the program. This has resulted in absenteeism and therefore results in more problems at home and even more lack of parental involvement and engagement for the families. The goal for choosing this topic to show that there is a need for active parental involvement and engagement. With this need, the student will develop a program that will encourage the families to be fully engaged in their child's education, become their child's first teachers, partner with the school, and help the child develop a love for learning. Eventually, the children will steal their way out of the statistics of poverty and it's symptoms and slowly and eventually begins changing the face of the community.

My study will show that there are a significantly low percentage of Head Start families who are actively involved and engaged in their child's education. The research will show that there are some contributing factors that play a major role as to why these families are not engaged in the child's school learning experiences. The research will also show that because of the lack of active participation and engagement the children continue to fall behind their peers academically and as a result continue to remain at the lower socio economic status in life. The research will map capture all the variables, patterns and habits, that affect and/or cause the families to remain absent in their child's education. The study will also generate a literacy program that will facilitate skill building, education for the parents, routines and activities that will encourage the families to become interested and to become more involved and engaged in the child's preschool learning experiences. Therefore giving the child a true head start in life educationally and eventually prepare them to change the course of life for the better and eventually out of poverty.

In our Head Start program, we keep records of how many parents and their families participate in the classrooms, events and activities on a monthly basis. These events include, communicating, volunteering, teaching at home, decision making, collaborating with the community, parent education initiatives. The numbers are very low as it is reflected in our monthly action plan that is reviewed by the Executive Director. The numbers have consistently remained low for parent involvement and participation in the classrooms and parent meetings as a resource for the entire family. Our of 698 families we serve each year, our volunteer numbers for month of September only ranged at about 30 to about 40 throughout the past four years.

The director of the office of Head Start, Yvette Sanchez stated that our Head Start families are mainly from communities that are plagued with severe economic and social challenges to parent involvement. These challenges could be related to poverty, social status, and chaos in the home. She also stated that our Head Start population is made up of the highest need population including families in the Welfare system, homelessness, are just learning English and also have disabilities (Stone 2011).

The Us Department of Education released an article which stated that some Head Start schools have done well with incorporating literacy programs with parent involvement efforts produced better school success that Head Start programs without a strong parent involvement program. The Barbara Bush National Foundation for Literacy gives families a chance to become more involved in their child's education while improving on their own literacy skills at the same time.

The plan is to introduce the parents to the true nature of parental involvement by education them about all the benefits and giving them the tools and skills on reading to your child, keeping a good schedule and routine and using play as the foundation for learning. Demonstrating that play is the most important way for young children to learn and even better when children play with the adults in their lives. This learning task is the basis and foundation for the student's research project.

The main contextual factors include the fact the Head Start population is made up of mostly Black and Hispanic families at the very low end of the socio-economic status. In order to qualify for students to attend Head Start, the families must be living within or below the state poverty guidelines. Living in poverty had created many problems and so families find themselves in one crisis situation after the other. The children are considered at-risk children who have already fallen many years behind their peers academically and even socially and emotionally in their development. The lack of education and the strong effects of poverty keep these families in the dark and their sole purpose becomes mainly to survive while remaining foreign to quality education for their children.

3. Review of literature addressing the problem (Consists of two parts: a) theoretical/conceptual framework and b) current research literature addressing the problem.

a) The theoretical base or conceptual framework is described. The selection of the theory/framework is justified by showing a clear contribution to understanding of the problem. How the theory/framework will be used to inform the study is described and justified.

b) Current research literature related to the problem is summarized and critically reviewed. Includes at least 15 current references from research literature articles published in peer-reviewed journals. Current literature is defined as published within the past 5 years. Research literature is defined as articles reporting data collection methods or data sources, data analysis methods, and findings)

The proposed theoretical framework for this study will focus on our Head Start classroom teachers' perceptions, observations and documentation of the patterns of parent involvement and engagement in their children's education and services provided by the Head Start Schools. In qualitative studies, Glesne (2011) suggests that this approach offers a guide that will lead the student to improve focus on the perspectives, concepts and ideas about parent engagement as seen through the eyes of the classroom teachers. A theoretical approach will be used to apply an immediate understanding of the process by which share information about their practices at home and at school with their children leading the student to discover how involved and engaged they are. The theoretical approach will also present what Head Start teachers and administrators are doing and can do to promote more involvement and engagement. The structure and foundation for the theoretical approach would be rooted in questions to be answered in the project study. The student's perspective and approach for understanding the problem of the lack of involvement and engagement in their education will drive and define the variable that the student will explore. The student will use and present a collection of interrelated concepts that will guide the research and help determine the variables that will be measured (Creswell, 2012).