Table of Contents | Previous | Next |
6 - Accomplishments and Challenges for the Future
Head Start, from its inception, has been well suited for meeting the needs of diverse children and families. The ethos of inclusive community, and the commitment to and empowerment of children and families has made hundreds of thousands of young children, their families and staff feel welcomed and validated. The Head Start Program Performance Standards stress the importance of enhancing the sense of dignity and self-worth of each child and his or her family. As a federal program with national guidance, but local governance, grantees are free and encouraged to make culturally responsive program decisions reflective and respectful of their community.
The purpose of this concluding chapter is to describe specific strengths and programmatic challenges as described by staff and parents. The section closes with recommendations for Head Start programs as well as for larger community efforts.
Advances and Challenges for Head Start Programs
- In fact, Head Start does serve a diverse community and this diversity is increasing. A majority of children enrolled in Head Start are members of a minority group; the largest minorities represented are Blacks and Hispanics. The programs surveyed listed over 140 languages spoken by Head Start children. Spanish is the most common language spoken other than English. Head Start programs still face the challenge of reaching all eligible children. They have particular trouble reaching small or disenfranchised groups, such as recent immigrants and speakers of low prevalence languages.
- In many communities, language and cultural barriers prevent Head Start from recruiting and enrolling eligible non-English-speaking families.
- Overall, there exists a fairly good match between ethnicity and language of students and staff. However, it is a challenge to recruit and hire well-trained bilingual staff. Not only are trained and certified bilingual staff difficult to locate, but many require higher salaries because of their language skills. Programs had a particularly difficult time finding staff who speak Hmong, Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Laotian, and Creole.
- Programs serving children from more than three linguistic or ethnic groups face the challenge of having to represent all groups in their programs. For example, at one site with children who speak six different languages, the program found it to be impossible for staff to speak all six languages.
- While some types of bilingual and multicultural materials are increasingly easier to acquire, staff found it more challenging to provide services in a manner that consistently integrates a multicultural philosophy. As one staff member explained, "The hard part was not [in] infusing the sense of pride and understanding of our culture, but in developing attitudes that sustain it." Some staff reported being frustrated at their inability to find specific bilingual and multicultural materials. Among the most difficult items to find are age-appropriate books in languages used by Southeast Asian children. There is also a need to acquire materials or translations of materials into Chinese, Vietnamese, Hmong, Russian, and Creole.
- Administering multicultural programs is expensive. Programs need additional resources for materials, field trips, translators, and training for staff.
- Parents from diverse cultures act as important resources and their talents enhance bilingual and multicultural programming. Parents are particularly helpful when they provide assistance on how to integrate different cultures into the classroom and when they share foods, stories, dances, and songs.
- Most Head Start programs were able to find appropriate community social and health services for families. However, some Head Start sites reported difficulties finding and coordinating with health service providers who spoke the families' home languages. This problem was particularly acute when the child needed specialized services for a suspected or diagnosed disability.
Parents' View
- Most non-English speaking parents want their children to learn English and are pleased that they are attending Head Start. Generally, parents report that they are pleased with the rapidity with which their children learn English. Most children leave Head Start with greatly improved conversational English skills. Yet, some parents report that when their child's English surpasses their own, the balance of power can subtly shift between parent and child. It can be a challenge to maintain generational and cultural respect with new gains. For instance, although children are encouraged to speak up in Head Start classrooms, this practice contradicts the culture in some traditional families where children are taught that they may not question their parents.
- Parents are pleased with the Policy Council because it serves as a forum for their opinions and gives them a right and an opportunity to make a difference in the program. Parents participating on the Policy Council feel proud and empowered.
- Parents welcome the opportunities to obtain their GED, to earn a CDA certificate, and to be employed by the Head Start program. Non-English speaking parents are especially appreciative of English-as-a-Second-Language courses.
- Translations of all materials and translators for meetings are greatly needed to allow parents to participate with dignity and significance.
Recent Changes in Head Start Policy
It is note-worthy to say that, since the conclusion of this descriptive study, with the revision of the Head Start Performance Standards that took in effect in January 1998, the Head Start Bureau has moved forward to develop new standards to require grantees to better meet unique needs of children and families of bilingual and multicultural backgrounds. The Revised Performance Standards require the following: (a) that grantees be trained to better implement the Multicultural Principles; (b) that grantees actively improve their ability to coordinate with community healthcare providers who are able and willing to meet unique needs of bilingual and multicultural populations; (c) that grantees conduct health, developmental, and other screenings in families' preferred languages; (d) that grantees provide translators to assist non-English speaking parents during medical and dental provider visits.
The Performance Standards also require grantees to conduct community needs assessments to, among other things, describe demographic changes in local communities and explore their effects on enrollment of children and families in their programs. They also require the assessment of the effectiveness of local programs' bilingual and multicultural practices. The Performance Standards also require that programs develop new approaches to improving parent involvement with an increasingly diverse population of parents. These new program requirements are reviewed during periodic monitoring visits by the Head Start Bureau to ensure that quality program services are provided to children and families of bilingual and multicultural background.
Data gathered for the Celebrating Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Head Start has provided the Head Start Bureau with a wealth of information on services which local programs designed and provided to children and families of bilingual and multicultural background. These innovative services were spontaneous responses of local programs to meet the urgent needs of bilingual and multicultural children and families as programs faced influxes of planned or unplanned numbers of these newcomers in their service areas. Classroom observations and interviews with program staff conducted during site visits revealed a wide spectrum of services provided and actions taken by local programs to meet parents' expectations of services. Focus group interviews with parents conducted during site visits confirmed that parents were generally satisfied with the services provided.
Suggestions
Head Start programs can and do impact community practices outside of their doors. Here are some efforts that, over time, will improve our ability to serve families from diverse cultural and linguistic heritages.
Within the Head Start community:
- Demographic changes in local communities, as well as their effects on recruitment and enrollment of children and families in Head Start programs, should be monitored. Efforts should be made to reach out to eligible non-English speaking families, who are often prevented from accessing Head Start services due to language barriers.
- Training and technical assistance on bilingual and multicultural programming is needed, including dissemination efforts to share information with both programs and parents on the current availability of bilingual and multicultural resources.
- The Head Start community must continue striving to understand cultural values of families served and to incorporate them meaningfully and respectfully into program practices.
Beyond the Head Start community:
- Head Start should continue to encourage diversity in the field of early childhood education, teacher training, and early childhood education research. Head Start already invests in the training of minority individuals through grants to Tribally Controlled Universities, Historically Black Colleges, and Hispanic Serving Institutions. Similarly, Head Start has increased support for graduate students conducting research in Head Start.
- Head Start can aid in the efforts to promote census participation. This is essential in accessing federal and state resources for childcare, Head Start, education, and public health services, as well as for other community programs. Having an accurate profile of the community will also allow individual Head Start programs to monitor the success of their recruitment and enrollment practices.
- The fields of child development and early childhood education need resources to encourage the development of more empirically supported bilingual and multicultural approaches to curricula appropriate to preschoolers and to the language groups represented in Head Start programs. Research is needed to conceptualize, evaluate and broadly implement bilingual and multicultural practices that lead to improved child outcomes.
Final Word
The manner in which we support, respect and accept differences in our communities of young children will influence the ways in which they mature into the adult voices and the decision makers that shape our future communities and our nation.
A culturally and linguistically responsive approach to serving children and families honors family and individual uniqueness. While there are many values of the predominant culture, our challenge is to be sensitive to and respectful of all values. Incorporating family differences and multicultural principles into the resources and technologies we use to support children is not only a pragmatic challenge, it is for some a paradigmatic change. As the populations we serve become increasingly diverse, we must continue to engage in a powerful discourse about the issues of familial, cultural, ethnic and linguistic identity, and how Head Start communities support the hopes, dreams and successes of all children and families served.
| Table of Contents | Previous | Next |