HSIPC: Head Start Bulletin--Head Start Highlights: Moving Into the 21st Century: An Update on Implementing Head Start Initiatives

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Fall 1996

Vol. I, Issue No. 60

Moving Into the 21^st Century: An Update on Implementing Head Start Initiatives

By Helen H. Taylor, Associate Commissioner, Head Start Bureau

It was a historic day. As I watched the President sign the 1994 reauthorization of the Head Start Act on May 18, 1994 and visit with a group of Head Start children who attended the signing ceremony, I reflected on the significance of this new law for Head Start children and their families. On that day, in the East Room of the White House, I renewed my commitment to expand and improve the quality of Head Start programs all across America.

Several months earlier, in December 1993, the Advisory Committee on Head Start Quality and Expansion had released wide-ranging recommendations designed to guide the program into the 21^st century. I was particularly proud to serve as a member of this Advisory Committee and to help shape its recommendations.

When Congress passed the reauthorization of the Head Start Act in May 1994, it provided us with a mandate to carry out the Advisory Committee's recommendations. Both the Advisory Committee and the Congress charged us with improving significantly the overall quality of Head Start services, becoming more responsive to the needs of families and communities, and strengthening Head Start's linkages with other agencies and organizations serving low-income families.

Guided by these principles, we developed an ambitious agenda which included a number of major programmatic and management initiatives for the Head Start Bureau. I am proud to report on the achievement of the goals of many of these initiatives and our progress on the remaining initiatives which are continuing. The following summarizes these initiatives and our accomplishments:

The first major revision of the Head Start Program Performance Standards in over 20 years was completed and the standards for preschoolers were integrated with the standards for Early Head Start--the new program for pregnant women and families with infants and toddlers.
The exciting new program, Early Head Start, was launched with guidance from the Advisory Committee on Services for Families of Infants and Toddlers. In the last year, over 143 grants were awarded to programs serving 11,000 families across the country.
Since 1992, a major expansion of the Head Start program was funded, as well as efforts to improve program quality and extend services to full day. This expansion had an enhanced budget to serve an additional 135,400 Head Start children and their families.
Phase I of the Performance Measures Initiative was completed, during which a framework was developed for performance measures to assess the quality and effectiveness of the Head Start program nationwide. Phase II of the project was begun to develop further measures of performance.
The research agenda for the Head Start program has been revitalized, and includes generating a research partnership between academic institutions and Head Start grantees to form Quality Research Centers. These four centers pilot test approaches to the development of sound performance measures and the collection of relevant data.
Extensive collaboration activities have been initiated with the Child Care Bureau of the Administration on Children, Youth and Families.
The State level presence of Head Start has been expanded by funding Head Start State Collaboration Projects in 48 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
A special management effort has been initiated to ensure quality services and increase local accountability by strengthening and targeting the monitoring of Head Start programs and linking monitoring more effectively to technical assistance.
The management of the Head Start program has been strengthened by working with over 125 poorly performing grantees to improve their performance. Other programs that were not able to achieve sufficient levels of performance either were terminated or they voluntarily relinquished their grants.
Proposed Federal regulations were published, which are designed to improve the safety of Head Start transportation. Extensive outside consultation and other efforts were initiated to promote safety and resolve key issues in this field.
A framework and strategy for supporting grantee efforts to secure quality facilities were developed, including proposed Federal regulations on the purchase of facilities and a Policy Issuance on construction and major renovation.
Training and technical assistance (T/TA) was provided to select grantees to improve performance. Additionally, a major review of the Head Start T/TA system was conducted to assess its effectiveness and design an innovative strategy to improve T/TA responsiveness.
The effectiveness of the American Indian Programs was strengthened by emphasizing training, accountability, and collaboration among Tribes.
New leadership has been provided for the Migrant Branch, which continues to provide support to migrant parents to become better advocates for themselves and their children.
Effective transition practices are being funded, including continued support for the 31 Head Start Public School Early Childhood Transition Demonstration Projects.
Literacy enhancement grants for local programs have been supported, and the Emergent Literacy Initiative has been created to design and implement strategies and approaches to support and strengthen literacy activities of Head Start programs.

A new crosscutting team approach has been developed in the Head Start Bureau to carry out the many initiatives described in this article, and experts and groups have been consulted in implementing the new work plans and strategies. The articles in this issue of the Bulletin highlight and provide additional details on each of these initiatives.

I believe we can point with pride to the many results that have been achieved in such a short span of time, and to examples of Head Start providing quality services to hundreds of thousands of children and their families across America. We look forward to meeting the challenges ahead in our efforts to successfully lead Head Start into the 21st century.

New Policy Council Training Package for Local Programs Nears Completion

"Linking Our Voices: A Video-based Training Program for Head Start Policy Councils" is an innovative package for preparing parents and community representatives to be effective Policy Council members.

Developed by Educational Service under a contract from DHHS/HSB, the package provides local Head Start programs with a training tool for inspiring Policy Council participation and development.

The package provides trainers of Policy Councils with a 22-minute video, a facilitator's manual, and a set of participant materials that are used for four workshops that follow the showing of the video. The workshops are based on real stories of representative Policy Council members. All materials are available in both English and Spanish. The video is close-captioned.

The materials will be available to all grantee and delegate agencies early in 1997, and training-of-trainers sessions will be conducted in all Regions.

The materials will be previewed at the National Head Start Association's 13^th Annual Parents' Training Conference being held in Houston, Texas, from December 6-9, 1996.

Head Start Bulletin Issue No. 60 Contents

"New Performance Standards"

View other Head Start Bulletins

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