Research that Benefits Children and Families-Uplifting Stories

        A positive example of the effects of research on children and/or families that I would like to share is about research that was conducted involving Head Start. As a former Head Start teacher I participate in a study conducted by the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES).  I would like to share a study by FACES that was conducted in 2009

      The Head Start Children, Families and Programs: Present and Past Data from FACES Report 2011 provides a portrait of children entering Head Start for the first time in fall 2009, as well as their family backgrounds and the classrooms and programs that serve them. The report also offers comparisons across the past decade of the Head Start program to trends and changes in the population served and the services provided. Data are drawn from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), which was first launched in 1997 as a periodic, longitudinal study of program performance.

      FACES include a battery of child assessments across many developmental domains; interviews with children’s parents, teachers, and program managers; and observations of classroom quality. FACES 2009 used a sample design to select a nationally representative probability sample of Head Start children and their families. A sample of Head Start programs was selected from the 2007-2008 Head Start Program Information Report (PIR), and approximately two center per program and three classrooms per center were selected for participation. Within each classroom, an average of eight newly enrolled 3 and 4 year old children was selected for the study.

       As a result of the study, newly entering Head Start children score below norms across developmental areas, including language, literacy and mathematics development at program entry. Measurements of the child and family outcomes, both during the program years and through follow-up at the end of kindergarten, allows fuller understanding of Head Start efforts to prepare children and their parents for participation in school.

            I wanted to share this report with my colleagues and those that work for Head Start program that most of the outcome data are being collected from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of Head Start programs, classrooms, teachers, parents, and children examining the quality and effects of Head Start.

      

Reference

Head Start Children, Families, and Programs: Present and Past Data from FACES Report 2011.

Retrieved from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hs/faces/reports/present_past.pdf