Spotlight on the Head Start Workforce: Program Strategies to Improve Well-Being and Increase Retention

Publication Date: November 18, 2024
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  • Published: 2024

Introduction

Research Questions

  1. What types of strategies did Head Start programs in the 2021–2022 Study use to support and retain staff? Did programs increase their use of these strategies in the past year?
  2. To what extent did Head Start centers in the 2021–2022 Study experience challenges due to staff turnover and shortages?
  3. What are the associations between the strategies programs used to support and retain staff and the challenges their centers experienced because of staff turnover?

This brief draws on data from the 2021—2022 Study of Family and Staff Well-Being in Head Start FACES Programs (2021—2022 Study) to examine the strategies programs used to improve staff retention and well-being. Using data collected in spring 2022 after more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, this brief describes the types of strategies programs used to support and retain teaching and non-teaching staff, the staffing challenges centers experienced, and the associations between the two. 

Findings from this brief provide encouraging evidence on the steps Head Start programs are taking to support their staff. Findings highlight the staffing challenges their centers continue to face and provide new understanding about whether the strategies programs use are linked to whether they experience staffing challenges. The results also point to the continued need to better understand the most effective strategies or combinations of strategies to support and retain the Head Start workforce.

Purpose

The purpose of this brief is to provide information about the types of strategies Head Start programs use to support and retain staff, and the staffing challenges Head Start centers are experiencing more than two years after the COVID-19 pandemic began. Results help to understand the supports programs provide to teaching staff and, importantly, provide new insight about how programs are supporting non-teaching staff. The findings can help develop insight into how programs could support the Head Start workforce in the wake of the pandemic and into the persisting staffing challenges.

Key Findings and Highlights

Strategies programs used to support and retain staff:

  • A majority of programs increased wages for both teaching and non-teaching staff between the spring of 2021 and the spring of 2022. 
  • Almost all programs used more than one strategy to support the economic well-being of staff and offered a variety of workplace supports. Programs offered these supports to both teaching and non-teaching staff.
  • Most programs used a variety of strategies to support the psychological and physical well-being of teaching and non-teaching staff, such as mental health consultations and counseling resources or referrals to employee assistance programs. Many program directors reported that their programs added or increased these supports in the past year.
  • Programs used many strategies to support all groups of teaching and non-teaching staff, such as strategies to support their economic well-being. But for some strategies, programs tended to offer support to particular staff groups. Programs were more likely to offer supports for staff qualifications and competencies to teaching staff, family service workers and child counselors or therapists, compared to other staff groups. Programs were also more likely to offer flexible scheduling to managers and coordinators compared to other staff groups. 

Center challenges related to staff turnover and shortages:

  • More than half of centers faced challenges related to teacher turnover between spring of 2021 and spring of 2022, and most had difficulty finding classroom coverage. Less than half of center directors reported that turnover among non-teaching staff was a problem.
  • More than half of centers struggled to find enough staff (including teaching and non-teaching staff) to operate at full capacity.

Links between the strategies programs used to support and retain staff and the challenges their centers experienced because of staff turnover:

  • Generally, we found few associations between (1) the number and types of strategies programs used to support and retain staff, and (2) whether their centers experienced challenges because of staff turnover.
  • Centers in programs that offered more types of supports for qualifications and competencies to other staff—such as facilities and support staff—tended to experience greater challenges related to turnover among those staff. This association may be the result of staff in these roles going on to seek other roles after receiving the support.

Methods

For the 2021—2022 Study, we selected a nationally representative sample of Head Start programs. However, given lower than expected program participation and response rates, we do not recommend assuming national representativeness. This brief uses data from the program director and center director surveys to examine the strategies Head Start programs used to support and retain staff (Research Question 1), the extent to which their centers experienced challenges because of staff turnover and shortages (Research Question 2), and the associations between the strategies they used and the challenges they experienced (Research Question 3). 

We report percentages and averages (means) to answer Research Question 1, with a sample of 132 programs that had a complete program director survey. We report percentages and averages (means) to answer Research Question 2, with a sample of 237 centers that had a complete center director survey.

To answer the research questions about the associations between the strategies programs used to support and retain staff and whether centers in those programs experienced challenges related to staff turnover (Research Question 3), we conducted a series of logistic regressions that used the number of strategies programs used to support and retain staff to predict whether centers experienced challenges related to staff turnover. We also conducted logistic regressions to examine whether programs’ use of specific strategies to recruit and retain staff predicted whether centers experienced challenges due to staff turnover. The sample for these analyses includes 179 centers with complete center director and program director surveys

Appendix

Appendix

Gonzalez Katie, Ellen Litkowski, Louisa Tarullo, Jeani Choe, and Sara Bernstein. (2024). “Technical Appendix for Spotlight on the Head Start Workforce: Program Strategies to Improve Well-Being and Increase Retention.” OPRE Report 2024-093. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

File TypeFile NameFile Size
PDFTechnical Appendix for Spotlight on the Head Start Workforce: Program Strategies to Improve Well-Being and Increase Retention1,091.84 KB

Citation

Gonzalez Katie, Ellen Litkowski, Louisa Tarullo, Jeani Choe, and Sara Bernstein. (2024). “Spotlight on the Head Start Workforce: Program Strategies to Improve Well-Being and Increase Retention.” OPRE Report 2024-094. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Glossary

FACES:
Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey
COVID-19, or coronavirus disease 19:
An infectious disease that was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization and a public health emergency by the U.S. in March 2020.