Head Start: Government Program for Children's Education

Name of the Agency 

The program that I have selected is the Head Start, which is a government program of the US department of health and human services meant to provide comprehensive early childhood education, the health of the children and their nutrition in Chicago, Illinois Head Start Association. The program is also proactive in the provision of the parental involvement services to the children from low-income families ( Bailey & Washington, 2014) . The services and resources of the program are designed to foster stability in family relationships, enhancing the physical and emotional well-being of the children. The program is also essential in enhancing a sound environment for the development of strong cognitive skills. The agency understands that the transition from pre-school to the elementary school poses diverse challenges including the requirement that the children should engage successfully in all aspects of life with the children outside their family network ( Bulotsky-Shearer et al., 2011) . The program aims at providing the children with the foundation in education as well as addressing the effects of systematic poverty in Chicago, Illinois by intervening to aid children. 

Program Elements 

I will evaluate the early childcare and education program for children aged from three to five years who originate from the low-income families, which is the broader Illinois Head Start Association ( Domitrovich et al., 2010) . The program is comprehensive in that it promotes the school readiness, provides nutrition services and access to free medical and dental services for the children. The Head Start program also offers parents training programs on early childhood upbringing ( Start, 2015) . The program is funded by the federal government and administered by FSS, where it has different locations in Chicago, Illinois and is run by the community-based organizations, daycare programs run by the private sector and the public schools in Chicago ( Bulotsky-Shearer et al., 2011) . The children under Head Start access different skills that transcend their success in schools. 

Head Start ensures that the environment of child growth is safe and one that is nurturing, where it focuses on three main elements ( Bailey & Washington, 2014) . The first element that will be evaluated will be the literacy and school readiness, which includes helping the child to solve problems related to recognition of their name and the provision of fundamental skills in readiness for the kindergarten. It essentially helps the child to be proactive in preparation for learning and the eventual success in life ( Bulotsky-Shearer et al., 2011) . The other area of focus is health and hygiene, which helps the child to solve problems related to vulnerability to infection from contagious diseases ( Morris et al., 2014) . The practices in this area of focus include teaching the child the essential health practices such as hand washing, nutrition and the development of healthy habits. The program also helps in the provision of free medical and dental services including the hearing and vision tests and aid to the children with special needs. 

The last area of focus is socialization. The Head Start classroom is meant to create an environment for interaction with peers such as completion of joint tasks ( Bulotsky-Shearer et al., 2011) . Children are taught to make meaningful relationships with their peers and how to develop the problem-solving skills while gaining experiences that can help them to build self-confidence. The communities in Chicago, Illinois have varied values and resources. Since most of the families are made up of the black immigrants, they have lower levels of income even though they can meet the income guidelines ( Bailey & Washington, 2014) . The parents value education programs, where they are willing to go to school. The families are also capable of funding for the program by meeting the requirements of making small co-payments based on the sliding scale. 

The Purpose of the Evaluation 

The evaluation will help identify the outcomes in improved health, nutrition and education programs for the children and the parent involvement in child upbringing. It will also assess the possible barriers to sustained good health among children from low-income communities and families in Chicago, Illinois ( Bulotsky-Shearer et al., 2011) . The evaluation will also be viable as it will help in the determination of its viability and show the levels to which the management uses the resources designed to foster stable family relationships, enhance the physical and emotional well-being, and establishment of an environment that develops the strong cognitive skills for the children ( Domitrovich et al., 2010) . The evaluation will be of help to the federal government as it would help in making the vital decisions on funding for the program ( Bailey & Washington, 2014) . The evaluation will relay recommendations for increased funding from the federal government depending on the achievements and the current needs. 

The evaluation information is also helpful for the local grantees, which provides 20% cash/in-kind match. The local grantee will use the evaluation information to help in the creation of knowledge on how to obtain the annual financial audit especially if it received more than $500,000 in terms of the federal support ( Bulotsky-Shearer et al., 2011) . The information from this evaluation will also be essential for the Administration for Children and Families (AFC), which awards grants to the local public agencies, the private institutions and the school systems that support the Head Start program. The AFC will use the information to estimate if it should improve in its efforts of offering grants to the program or if it has to increase the amount it donates to the program ( Domitrovich et al., 2010) . The evaluation will also be helpful for the individual Head Start classrooms or centers as they will know how to budget for the repayment of the grants through the already existing In-kind program. 

Literature Review 

A growing body of research has shown that the first few years of the life of children are promising especially if intervention programs are put in place, which is an attribute that has been found to have long-term effects on their lives as they grow ( Bulotsky-Shearer et al., 2011) . The US government enacted the early childhood program, Head Start, which has remained a topic of discussion on its costs and the benefits it offers to the children in low-income families ( Bailey & Washington, 2014) . The current federal expenditure on the Head Start program is $8billion, where the program benefits more than one million children across the US ( Powell et al., 2010) . Different researchers have expressed their confidence in the likelihood of achieving benefits for the participants of the Head Start program, which is an element that justifies the costs therein ( Impact, 2014) . Other researchers have shown that there could be more beneficial ways of deploying the resources for the program in as much as the benefits of such changes remain uncertain. 

A growing body of research in psychological sciences such as neuroscience and developmental psychology shows that intervention programs for children at an early age are more promising compared to those that come at later stages of life. In the 1960s, there was an intensive model for early childhood programs for children, which included the Perry Preschool and the Abecedarian models ( Bailey & Washington, 2014) . These programs have been found out to be the contributory factors to the current status of most of the beneficiaries especially for the children that originated from the low-income families. The findings and the benefits therein would be correlated to the society’s investment in early childhood education, even though it is uncertain that the small model programs can be effectively taken to scale. 

Head Start is an example of a scaled-up program that is consistently generating debate on whether it produces lasting benefits to the program participants amid the increase in the government expenditure after its enactment ( Quesenberry et al., 2011) . The program currently consumes $8 billion of the government budget, while it helps more than one million children and more than 500,000 parents across the US. Researchers have found it essential to pass a cost-benefit analysis, wherein principle; they have found the need to devise ways of increasing the cost-effectiveness of the current system of funding for Head Start. 

Literary findings show that there is a close correlation between the quality of services offered in the Head Start Program and the positive outcomes marked by the health outcomes and adherence to the education system among the children and their parents. Other research findings have tried to analyze the correlation between the costs of the Head Start program and the outcomes marked by the improvements in performance and achievement of the long-term goals among the children ( Bailey & Washington, 2014) . These studies found out that the efficiency of the Head Start program is highly dependent on the quality of services offered as compared to the costs and resources put forth ( Puma et al., 2010) . In this case, the independent variable is the quality of services offered by the individual Head Start association, while the independent variables are the long-term outcomes of the program, which include the improved health outcomes and adherence to the education system among the children who underwent the intervention program at an early age ( Purcell-Gates, 2013) . 

The studies show that the higher the quality of services are, then the better the proclivity of achieving the best outcomes in terms of improvement of the health of the children and adherence to the education system at adulthood ( Hildebrand & Shriver, 2010) . The studies negate the fact that the costs of the education program have a positive impact on the improvement of the healthcare outcomes and adherence to the education programs ( Bailey & Washington, 2014) . This implies that the positive outcomes of the Head Start program are highly dependent on how the management boards of the association utilize the resources to maximize the full potentiality of the children as opposed to the total costs consumed in implementing the program among the children and their parents. On the other hand, the social support of the community is correlated with positive results among the participants, where positive outcomes are achieved when the societal support is sufficient. 

The proposed Research Design 

The children who have benefitted from the Head Start program are those who are aged between 3-5 years and those who are from the low-economic backgrounds. Moreover, other beneficiaries are the parents, who are taught to acquire the child-upbringing skills ( Zhai et al., 2011) . The study design is a cohort study based on the epidemiological analysis of the participants who will be followed up over some time primarily to assess their health outcomes and the levels of adherence to the education system ( Bailey & Washington, 2014) . In such a cohort design of the study, the researcher identifies the participants who do not have the outcome of interest at the initial stages and groups them in different subsets that vary in the course of exposure to the identified factor ( Zhai et al., 2011) . In this case, the group identified is that of the low-income children, while they are exposed to the factor identified as the Head Start program. The deliverables within the program include the adherence to the preschool environment, acquisition of the healthy habits such body hygiene and exposure to free primary medical practices. The cohort study seeks to assess what happens to the children with the expected outcomes including the adherence to the learning system and improved health outcomes among the children from the low-income families. 

The different exposure groups are followed over time to compare the expected outcomes such as improvement in health, adherence to the schooling program and achievement of long-term career goals ( Bailey & Washington, 2014) . It is expected that if the Head Start program is effective, then the subjects under consideration should develop the outcomes of interest. Following up this cohort in this fashion, there are eventualities of using the information gathered to evaluate the set hypotheses about the characteristics that are highly associated with the increased health risks among the children from low-income families ( Zhai et al., 2011) . For instance, if it is hypothesized that implementation of the Head Start program improves the levels of health among the children and their levels of adherence to the schooling program, then it is possible to sort out the subjects based on their attendance, where one could compare the subset of the cohort that underwent the program to those who did not undergo the program at an early age. In this case, making conclusions regarding the efficiency of the program involves finding out that the cohort that underwent the Head Start program has positive outcomes marked with improvement in health and increased levels of adherence to the schooling system. 

Logic Model 

The logic diagram above stipulates the steps that should be involved in the achievement of the set objectives within the Head Start program. The first step is the identification of the problem, which is lack of access to healthcare services and education program among the children from poor economic backgrounds ( Zhai et al., 2011) . The constraint is further deepened by the fact that most of these children come from communities that are not resource endowed to address the constraints of health that they face and the eligibility for pre-school preparation. The identified problem is high mortality rates among the children in the selected cohort in Chicago, Illinois. The second step involves identification of the key program inputs such as the human resources, the field resources and office supplies ( Bailey & Washington, 2014) . In this case, the Head Start Association is endowed with resources such as the funding from the federal government, grants from CFA and the program staff. The next step involves identification of the key program outputs, which includes the determination of the actions that the staff in the program will use to ensure the success of the program. Since the program involves preparing the children for the preschool environment and improving their health, the outputs include the training program on adoption of sound hygienic habits and advancement of free medical practices. 

The next step involves the determination of the program outcomes. This step involves determining what the program is going to change or achieve ( Wen et al., 2012) . Since the outcomes the Head Start program is long-term, it is vital to slit them into recognizable patterns to monitor progress over time. The short-term outcomes are an improvement in the healthcare outcomes, while the medium-level outcomes include active participation in school work. The long-term outcomes are the achievement of the lifetime career goals and attainment of full health potential among the adults who were once the children at the Head Start Association ( Bailey & Washington, 2014) . The long-term goals are highly attributed to the positive impacts of the Head Start program at an early life. 

The other step involves creating the logic model outline. This involves putting together the inputs, outputs, and outcomes to form the outline of the logic model as shown in the diagram below. 

Figure 1: Outline of the Logic Model 

The last step involves identifying the external influencing factors. It is considered that the Head Start program is influenced by the external or outside factors that may determine the success of the set plan ( Bailey & Washington, 2014) . Some of these factors include the environment and the settings in which the program will operate ( Zhai et al., 2011) . Analysis of the environment at the Chicago, Illinois Head Start Association shows that the setting has the required facilities for the implementation of the program. After identification of all the individual components, the visual model can be depicted as shown below. 

Figure 2: Logic Model for the Head Start Program 

Measurements and Indicators that will be Used in the Study 

I will need information on the income levels from the communities that the children come from, their family composition, household resources and the occupation of their parents. I will also need information from the district office on the community socioeconomic profiles. I will use the Performance Self-Management Questionnaire (PSMQ) statistical tool to measure the desired outcome for the children and their parents. The PSMQ is the tool that is considered as for measuring the success of this program in the course of the developmental stages of the individual child and their parents ( Bailey & Washington, 2014) . The parents will help in responding to the questions in the assessment, where they will attest to the levels to which the program has aided in the improvement of their children in terms of health and adherence to the education program. 

The other tool will be the social support assessment tool (Appendix B), which comprises of a one-page tool of assessment that is meant to assess the support that the children feel they receive from the surrounding community ( Zhai et al., 2011). The tool evaluates the levels of support that each child gets in the developmental stages. The social support tool is standardized in the sense that in the sense that it gives the levels of support that the children get from the individual community. The indicators of quality of the measurement instruments are the measures of reliability and validity. The process of development and validation of the measurement tools are focused on minimizing the possible errors in the course of determination of the viability of the program ( Zhai et al., 2011). The tools are reliable in the sense that they help in the evaluation of the stability of the measures, internal consistency and the interrater reliability of the instrument scores ( Bailey & Washington, 2014). On the other hand, the tools are valid in the sense that they help in the interpretation of the results in as much as the tests are warranted. 

The responsiveness of the measure of the chosen statistical tools to change is of particular interest in the application of healthcare, where the improvement in the outcomes is because of treatment, which is a primary goal of research ( Zhai et al., 2011). Several issues may affect the accuracy of the data reported as evidenced by the responses from the tools of analysis, where self-reports and secondary data sources are seen as the primary impediments to the achievement of the required results ( Bailey & Washington, 2014). Self-report of the subjects is essential for this evaluation conducted to assess the viability of the children in terms of improvement in health and adherence to the education curriculum, even though the reports of behavior are particularly subject to problems emanating from social desirability biases. 

The tools used as the key performance indicators of the program pose different strengths and weaknesses. The possible strength posed is that the tools are commonly used in association with the cognitive tools as a model of reviewing the levels of student achievement with respect to a common body of knowledge associated with the Head Start program. The tools have also been devised by experts in the discipline of child development, where they have high levels of reliability and validity ( Zhai et al., 2011). Moreover, the tools allow for institutional comparisons of student learning, which means that there is very little professional time required beyond the faculty efforts to analyze the examination results and to develop appropriate curricular changes that can address the findings therein ( Bailey & Washington, 2014). On the contrary, the measurement tools pose different weaknesses, which include the fact that they are dependent on self-reports that are leveled with high incidences of biases. In this case, the tests may not reflect the learning objective that the children may value, which means that the results may be discounted and inconsequential ( Bailey & Washington, 2014). The other form of bias emanates from the fact that the participants have low levels of self-judgment bearing in mind that they are minors who may give responses depending on the current circumstances as opposed to the realities of the situation. 

The Sample 

I will collect data from a sample of 10 Head Start associations out of more than 100 within Chicago, Illinois. I will use the existing agency case files, children, their parents and the community leaders as well as the agency staff to gather information on the effects of implementation of the program on the health outcomes and adherence to the school curriculum among the children ( Zhai et al., 2011). I will access both the primary and secondary data sources. I will use the association forms on each of the participants that detail the records of participation and the background information. I will also conduct personal interviews with the management teams and the community around Illinois to find out the prospective participants and their levels of participation in the program and the outcomes therein. This implies that in the course of the research, there will be a model of analyzing the trends of life of the children who underwent the Head Start program against those who did not ( Bailey & Washington, 2014). The variation between the two will be the evidence in making conclusions about the viability of the Head Start program. For instance, I will look at the health outcomes, levels of career achievement and the eventual levels of fulfillment in the life of the historical participants in the program. 

The availability of data, the timing of collection of the data and representation of the measurement of the program determines the components of the outcomes that should be evaluated ( Bailey & Washington, 2014). In this case, I will use the program information report as an annual census for the Head Start agencies including the four categories. The first category will be the preschoolers aged three to five years, the early Headstart, the Migrants and seasonal Head Start and the US Indian/Alaskan Head Start. The Head Start agencies will be required to complete surveys for each program that they administer in the preferred region, which is Chicago, Illinois. Since the program information report is considered as the annual censures for all the Head Start agencies, it will employ all the sampling methods including the random sample, the stratified method of sampling and the cluster method. The random method of sampling will be used to select a subset of individuals that will be chosen from a larger set of the population ( Zhai et al., 2011). The sample will include the school-age children who have fulfilled the requirements of the Head Start program in Chicago, Illinois. 

On the other hand, the stratified method of sampling will be applicable as it will be used to identify the types of participants making up the target population, where it works out in proportions needed for the representative sample ( Zhai et al., 2011). There will be a list that will be made for each variable including the age, which will affect the research. For instance, the number of children who have adhered to the education curriculum will be weighed against the sample of children who are beneficiaries of the Head Start program in the selected region ( Bailey & Washington, 2014). In this case, the researcher will make conclusions that the strata of the children adhering to the schooling program are high considering that the children had the Head Start as the intervention program compared to those who did not meet the requirements of the program. These results will be consistent with the hypothesis set that stipulates that the Head Start program has a positive impact on the adherence to schooling program among children from the low-income families. The results will also be in correlation with the fact that the stratified sample of children chosen from the Head Start program is marked with improvement in health as compared to the strata that are not adhering to the requirements of the program within the chosen region. 

Data Collection Plan 

I will collect data from the primary and secondary sources. The primary sources will include interviews and observation of the trends and outcomes of the expected results. I will also collect data from the secondary sources, which will include the documented information from the Head Start Association in Illinois. The interviews will be conducted through asking questions and recording of the responses that will be given ( Bailey & Washington, 2014). This will be a one-on-one conversation with the management boards, the staff, and the children, who will give responses regarding the outcomes of the implementation of the Head Start program. The interviews will be aimed at gathering information on the confidence levels of adherence to the program and the outcomes therein. For instance, the management boards will be required to articulate to the fact that the Head Start program has positive impacts on the future of learning of the children. On the other hand, the staff members will be required to give their perceptions on how the Head Start program in Illinois has improved the health outcomes of the children ( Zhai et al., 2011). On their part, the children will be required to show the levels of comprehension of the requirements of the curriculum after undergoing the Head Start Program. 

On the other hand, the secondary sources will be used to give the analysis of the costs against the benefits gained from implementation of the Head Start program in Chicago, Illinois. In this case, the secondary sources will involve analysis of the financial records and the student profiles of all the children who have undergone the Head Start program at the facility. It will also show the healthcare outcomes including the incidence rates before and after implementation of the Head Start program in Chicago, Illinois among the minors ( Bailey & Washington, 2014). The secondary sources will also be used to appraise the sources of funding from the agencies such as the federal government and the grants that are advanced to the program and how the association utilizes the funds in the promotion of the health and education for the children. 

Suggestions for Data Analysis 

A logistic regression analysis for quantitative data and content analysis will be carried out for open-ended interviews. It is evident that open-ended interviews like the ones recommended for this research are biased as they are based on self-report. The interviews are leveled with high levels of subconscious bias, where the respondents may have the tendency of letting the good qualities of the interviewee smudge their perceptions against the less attractive ones that the interviewees may possess ( Bailey & Washington, 2014). A logistic regression analysis may be viable for this course as it may not only help in solving the subconscious bias, but also aid in resolving the response bias emanating from the levels of cognition of the respondents. In this case, the respondents include the minors, who may not be conscious about the aspects of the questions they are responding to ( Zhai et al., 2011). A content analysis of the responses is therefore vital in making the final conclusions on the viability of the evaluation, where the researcher should look at the effects of biases of the interviews and come up with the best practices of research. 

Legal Statute of the Head Start program 

The Head Start program is an act of the public law that was passed by the 110 th Congress. The program was enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the US in the assembly of the Congress. In its short title, the Act was cited as the “Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act 2007.” The “Statement of Purpose” of this act is a subchapter that is meant to promote should readiness for low-income children through enhancement of their cognitive, social and emotional development ( Bailey & Washington, 2014). The purpose statement gives the requirement that there should be a learning environment that supports the growth of the children in form of language, literacy, mathematics, science and social function. The program targets the low-income children and their families in terms of provision of health, education, nutrition, and other services that are determined based on the necessity of their family needs. The act defines deficiency as the material failure of an agency in the stipulated area of performance including threats to health, the denial of parents to exercise their full roles, and the failure to comply with the set standards related to the early childhood development. It also defines deficiency as the loss of the legal status and the misuse of funds meant to cater for the care of the beneficiaries therein. 

In addition, the gives guidance on financial assistance, wherein section 638 of the Head Start Act, it offers the jurisdiction that the federal government shall provide financial assistance in terms of legislation for the national budget meant to assist the Head Start agencies for each fiscal year. The act also gives the appropriations of the funds for each fiscal year of the federal expenditure, including the $8 billion for the 2017 fiscal year ( Bailey & Washington, 2014). On end, the act stipulates the penalties for misappropriation of the funds, resources, and grants that an individual or an agency faces in the course of management or therewith, the utilization of the Head Start resources. 

References 

Bailey, U. J. O., & Washington, V. (2014).  Project Head Start Models and strategies for the twenty-first century . Routledge. 

Bulotsky-Shearer, R. J., Fernandez, V., Dominguez, X., & Rouse, H. L. (2011). Behavior problems in learning activities and social interactions in Head Start classrooms and early reading, mathematics, and approaches to learning.  School Psychology Review ,  40 (1), 39. 

Domitrovich, C. E., Gest, S. D., Jones, D., Gill, S., & DeRousie, R. M. S. (2010). Implementation quality: Lessons learned in the context of the Head Start REDI trial.  Early Childhood Research Quarterly ,  25 (3), 284-298. 

Hildebrand, D. A., & Shriver, L. H. (2010). A quantitative and qualitative approach to understanding fruit and vegetable availability in low-income African-American families with children enrolled in an urban head start program.  Journal of the American Dietetic Association ,  110 (5), 710-718. 

Impact, D. H. S. S. (2014). The role of program quality in determining Head Start’s impact on child development.  Contract . 

Morris, P., Mattera, S., Castells, N., Bangser, M., Bierman, K., & Raver, C. C. (2014). Impact findings from the Head Start care demonstration: National evaluation of three approaches to improving preschoolers' social and emotional competence. 

Powell, D. R., Diamond, K. E., Burchinal, M. R., & Koehler, M. J. (2010). Effects of an early literacy professional development intervention on head start teachers and children.  Journal of Educational Psychology ,  102 (2), 299. 

Puma, M., Bell, S., Cook, R., Heid, C., Shapiro, G., Broene, P., ... & Ciarico, J. (2010). Head Start Impact Study. Final Report.  Administration for Children & Families . 

Purcell-Gates, V. (2013). Literacy worlds of children of migrant farmworker communities participating in a Migrant Head Start program.  Research in the Teaching of English , 68-97. 

Quesenberry, A. C., Hemmeter, M. L., & Ostrosky, M. M. (2011). Addressing challenging behaviors in Head Start: A closer look at program policies and procedures.  Topics in Early Childhood Special Education ,  30 (4), 209-220. 

Start, H. (2015). Head Start program facts fiscal year 2014.  Head Start: An office of the administration for children and families early childhood learning & knowledge center (ECLKC) . 

Wen, X., Bulotsky-Shearer, R. J., Hahs-Vaughn, D. L., & Korfmacher, J. (2012). Head Start program quality: Examination of classroom quality and parent involvement in predicting children's vocabulary, literacy, and mathematics achievement trajectories.  Early Childhood Research Quarterly ,  27 (4), 640-653. 

Zhai, F., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Waldfogel, J. (2011). Head Start and urban children's school readiness: A birth cohort study in 18 cities.  Developmental psychology ,  47 (1), 134. 

Appendices 

Personal Self-Management Questionnaire