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Introduction

Seventeen grantees are leading the way in developing Early Head Start programs. They are not only tackling the challenges of implementing comprehensive services for diverse families, they are also working with researchers to improve our knowledge about effective program strategies to promote healthy child development and family well-being in low-income families. As part of the first group of EHS programs funded, they are on the forefront in designing and implementing programs that meet the general Early Head Start program guidelines 1. As participants in the Early Head Start National Research and Evaluation Project, they are demonstrating what Early Head Start programs can accomplish and sharing their experiences and the lessons they have learned in creating Early Head Start programs and developing high-quality services for infants and toddlers and their families.

This volume and its companion volumes are the first of two reports designed to share the experiences of the 17 Early Head Start research programs with others. The first report focuses on the programs early in their implementation (fall 1997), approximately two years after they were funded and one year after they began serving families. Volume I examines the characteristics and experiences of the 17 research programs from a cross-site perspective, focusing on the similarities and differences among the programs in fall 1997. Volume III analyzes the levels of program implementation achieved by the programs across program areas in fall 1997. Following a brief description of Early Head Start and the national evaluation, this volume presents in-depth profiles of each of the research programs in fall 1997.

Early Head Start

Early Head Start was created just as the "quiet crisis" facing families with infants and toddlers in the United States, as identified in the Carnegie Corporation of New York's Starting Points report, began receiving national attention. The Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) designed the Early Head Start program in response to (1) the growing awareness of this "quiet crisis;" (2) recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Head Start Quality and Expansion; (3) growing community needs for services for infants and toddlers; and (4) the 1994 Head Start reauthorization, which established a special initiative setting aside 3 percent of 1995 Head Start funding for services to families with infants and toddlers (and 4 percent of 1996 and 1997 funding and 5 percent of 1998 Head Start funds)2. Secretary Shalala's Advisory Committee on Services for Families with Infants and Toddlers then set forth a vision and blueprint for Early Head Start programs.

Early Head Start is a comprehensive, two-generation program that provides intensive services beginning before the child is born and concentrated on enhancing children's development and supporting families during the critical first three years of the child's life. Early Head Start programs offer services designed to promote improved outcomes in four domains:

• Children's development (including health, resiliency, secure attachments, social competence, and cognitive and language development)
• Family development (including parenting and relationships with children, the home environment and family functioning, family health, parent involvement, and economic self-sufficiency)
• Staff development (including professional development and relationships with parents and children)
• Community development (including enhanced child care quality, community collaboration, and integration of services to support families with young children)

Early Head Start programs are guided by the Revised Head Start Performance Standards, which were published in November 1996 and became effective January 1, 1998. Using these standards, the Head Start Bureau monitors Early Head Start program services and performance in three main areas: (1) early childhood development and health services, (2) family and community partnerships, and (3) program design and management. In fall 1997, the programs were still seeking clarification of some aspects of the revised standards, and they had not yet received monitoring visits by Head Start Bureau staff.

Early Head Start has been growing steadily. Sixty-eight local programs, serving about 75 families each, were funded in September 1995. Another 75 were added in September 1996, followed by more programs in subsequent years, so that today more than 500 programs are serving infants, toddlers, and their families.

The Early Head Start National Research and Evaluation Project

A comprehensive national evaluation conducted in tandem with a cluster of local research and evaluation studies is addressing a broad range of issues. This research and evaluation is going beyond assessing program impacts to encourage a new generation of research for understanding the role of program and contextual variations and creating a foundation for a series of longitudinal research studies.

The Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project encompasses five major components:

1. An implementation study to examine service needs and use for low-income families with infants and toddlers, assess program implementation, illuminate pathways to achieving quality, examine program contributions to community change, and identify and explore variations across sites
2. An impact evaluation to analyze the effects of Early Head Start programs on children, parents, and families in depth, using an experimental design and state-of-the art analytic methods; descriptive analyses to assess outcomes for program staff and communities
3. Local research studies to learn more about the pathways to desired outcomes for infants and toddlers, parents and families, staff, and communities
4. Policy studies to respond to information needs in areas of emerging policy-relevant issues, including welfare reform, fathers, child care, infant-toddler health, and children with disabilities
5. Continuous program improvement activities to guide all EHS programs in formative evaluation

The Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project was designed as a dynamic research project, and its multiple reports on program processes and outcomes will inform the program's early development. Lessons from early implementation identified by the research will help fledgling Early Head Start programs improve their practices.

The Early Head Start Research Programs

ACYF selected 17 Early Head Start programs from the first two waves of programs to participate in the national evaluation (see map). Sixteen of these are also participating in site-specific research studies. The programs and their local research partners are:

• Child Development Inc. Early Head Start in Russellville, Arkansas, working with the University of Arkansas, Little Rock

• Venice Family Clinic Children First Early Head Start in Venice, California, working with the University of California, Los Angeles

• Clayton/Mile High Family Futures, Inc., Early Head Start in Denver, Colorado, working with the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center

• Family Star Early Head Start in Denver, Colorado, working with the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center

• Mid-Iowa Community Action, Inc., Early Head Start in Marshalltown, Iowa, working with Iowa State University

• Project EAGLE Early Head Start in Kansas City, Kansas, working with the University of Kansas

• Region II Community Action Agency Early Head Start in Jackson, Michigan, working with Michigan State University

• KCMC Early Head Start in Kansas City, Missouri, working with the University of Missouri, Columbia

• Educational Alliance Early Head Start in New York, New York, working with New York University

• Family Foundations Early Head Start in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, working with the University of Pittsburgh

• School District 17 Early Head Start in Sumter, South Carolina, working with the Medical University of South Carolina

• Northwest Tennessee Head Start in McKenzie, Tennessee

• Bear River Early Head Start in Logan, Utah, working with Utah State University

• United Cerebral Palsy Early Head Start in Fairfax County, Virginia, working with Catholic University of America

• Early Education Services Early Head Start in Brattleboro, Vermont, working with Harvard University

• The Children's Home Society of Washington--Families First Early Head Start in South King County, Washington, working with the University of Washington, School of Nursing

• Washington State Migrant Council Early Head Start in Yakima Valley, Washington, working with the University of Washington, College of Education

As the list indicates, the programs participating in the national evaluation represent a wide diversity of locations and urban-rural settings. The programs also serve diverse populations. Some are new programs, while others build on the sponsoring agency's previous experiences as a Comprehensive Child Development Program or another program serving infants and toddlers.

The programs are taking diverse approaches to serving children and families. Some provide child and family development services primarily in regular, frequent home visits. Others offer center-based child development services and provide family development services in less-frequent meetings with parents, either at the center or in families' homes. Still others combine these approaches, providing services to some families in centers and to other families in home visits. The programs that provide services in home visits take a variety of approaches to ensuring that children receive high quality child care, ranging from making referrals to local child care resource and referral agencies to establishing collaborative agreements with child care providers and providing training and technical assistance to them. The programs also involve parents in group activities, ranging from monthly parent meetings to intensive weekly play groups for parents and children.

Early Head Start program guidelines specify that Early Head Start programs may serve pregnant women and families with children under age 3 who meet the Head Start income criteria. Although most families must have incomes at or below the federal poverty line or be eligible for public assistance, up to 10 percent of children may be from families with higher incomes. Programs are also required to make at least 10 percent of program spaces available to children with disabilities. Early Head Start programs that are participating in the national evaluation were expected to recruit 150 to 200 families with pregnant women or children under age 1 to participate in the evaluation research (half were randomly selected to participate in the program and half were randomly assigned to the control group). Thus, many of the research programs focused on recruiting and enrolling families with children under age 1 (or younger, in some cases).

The Program Profiles

The profiles of the 17 research programs presented in this volume provide a detailed overview of each of the Early Head Start research programs in fall 1997. They describe the programs' enrollment, the services they offer in each program area, and their continuous program improvement efforts and local research studies. The profiles are designed to provide basic information about each program in a common format, to facilitate their use as a reference. At the same time, the content and focus of the profiles vary, reflecting the diversity and unique characteristics of each program and community.

The program profiles are based on information gathered in two rounds of site visits conducted by researchers from Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., and Columbia University's Center for Young Children and Families. The first round of site visits was conducted in the summer and early fall of 1996, around the time each program began serving families. The second round of site visits was conducted in fall 1997.

The Early Head Start programs are dynamic, and they operate in a changing world. The profiles represent each program as it was at the time of the fall 1997 site visit. Where programs were making changes or experiencing changed circumstances at that time, the profiles describe the changes that were under way.

At the time of the site visits, local Early Intervention Programs for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities were authorized under Part H of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and were often referred to as Part H programs. As of July 1998, Part H was renamed Part C. To avoid future confusion, the profiles use the Part C designation when referring to the Part programs with which the Early Head Start programs were working.

Another change that took place soon after the site visits in fall 1997 was a change in the Head Start Bureau's training and technical assistance system. At the time of the site visits, two regional networks provided training and technical assistance to Early Head Start programs--a network of 16 regional Technical Assistance and Support Centers (TASCs) and a network of 12 regional Resource Access Projects (RAPs). The program profiles describe the programs' use of their TASCs and RAPs. Shortly after the site visits were completed, however, the system was reorganized, and training and technical assistance is now provided by regional Head Start Quality Improvement Centers and Disabilities Services Quality Improvement Centers.

Welfare reform has also created a backdrop of change for the Early Head Start programs. At the time of the site visits, new policies and programs were being implemented, families and staff members in community programs were learning about the new requirements and learning to operate in new ways, and community service providers were collaborating and working harder than ever to address the needs of families facing the new welfare requirements. Many of the Early Head Start research programs were considering changes in services to respond to the changing concerns and needs of enrolled families.

The remainder of this volume presents the profiles of the 17 Early Head Start research programs. The profiles are grouped according to program approach as of fall 1997 and presented in alphabetical order by state within each group.

 

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1 The Administration on Children, Youth and Families has funded new Early Head Start programs in waves, with the first wave funded in September 1995 and subsequent waves of programs funded approximately annually thereafter. [back]

2 The 1998 Coats Human Services Reauthorization Act increased Early Head Start funding to 7.5 percent for fiscal year 1999, 8 percent for fiscal year 2000, 9 percent for 2001, and 10 percent for 2002 and 2003. [back]

 

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