HSIPC: Head Start Bulletin--Head Start Highlights: Improving the Quality of the Head Start Program (Performance Standards)

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Fall 1996

Vol. I, Issue No. 60

Improving the Quality of the Head Start Program:

New Performance Standards

In May 1994, bipartisan Federal legislation was signed into law to amend the Head Start Act. This landmark legislation paved the way for Head Start to meet the current and future needs of America's children and families by both expanding and improving the Head Start program.

A cornerstone of the new law was the requirement to revise the Head Start Program Performance Standards, first published in 1975. As a result, the proposed revisions are easier and more flexible to use, integrate infants and toddlers into the program, promote collaboration with schools and other community programs, address family literacy needs, and draw on emerging research knowledge and medical expertise, in the following significant respects:

For the first time, the standards reflect a combination of sound practice, research, and a focus on quality in working to enhance young children's development.
The standards will be easier to use for training and for program management and will support interdisciplinary collaboration. They outline Head Start functions in child development and health, family and community partnerships, and program design and management to improve overall accountability at the local level. The standards also eliminate unnecessarily rigid or prescriptive rules not essential to program quality.
Agencies must implement a curriculum that includes goals and experiences for children, is consistent with the Performance Standards, and is based on sound child development principles about how children grow and learn.
The Standards contain a new section on community partnerships, reflecting the goal of Head Start agencies to work collaboratively with other community services. This includes the transition of children into and from Head Start.
The Standards focus on correcting deficiencies in Head Start programs. They require the development of a Quality Improvement Plan and the initiation of corrective actions within specified time periods.

Developing the Performance Measures

In May 1994, the reauthorization of the Head Start Act required the development by DHHS, on consultation with Head Start agencies and others, of methods and procedures for measuring, annually and over longer periods, the quality and effectiveness of programs operated by Head Start agencies. Section 641A.(b) of the Act states that the measures are to be designed to: (a) assess the various services provided by Head Start and administrative and fiscal practices of programs; and (b) be adaptable for use in self-assessment and peer review by local Head Start programs. DHHS is to use the measures to: (a) identify strengths and weaknesses of Head Start, nationally and regionally; and (b) identify problem areas that require training and technical assistance resources.

The Head Start Bureau has committed to the following tasks over the next two years in implementing the measures:

Collect and report annually on a core set of measures.
Develop new and better measures of outcomes and quality.
Improve ongoing Head Start data systems.
Develop results-oriented partnerships with grantees to help refine measures and develop approaches for utilizing them to improve local program quality.
Communicate about results with policy makers and external audiences.
Develop capacity within ACF to use the measures initiative to improve quality in local programs.

Head Start Bulletin Issue No. 60 Contents

"Standards, Guidance, Monitoring, and Measures: Their Purpose and Relationship"

View other Head Start Bulletins

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