HSIPC: Head Start Bulletin--Head Start Highlights: Standards, Guidance, Monitoring, and Measures: Their Purpose and Relationship

THE HEAD START PROGRAM PERFORMANCE STANDARDS are the mandatory regulations which grantees and delegate agencies must implement in order to operate a Head Start program. Together, this comprehensive set of Standards define the services that must be provided by Head Start programs.

The requirements established in the Program Performance Standards--along with those in the Performance Standards on Services to Children with Disabilities and the related eligibility and recruitment, administrative, staffing and program options, and fiscal regulations--form the basis for the areas which are examined during the on-site monitoring reviews that are conducted of Head Start grantee and delegate agencies.

THE HEAD START PROGRAM PERFORMANCE STANDARDS GUIDANCE illustrates ways in which the Standards can be implemented. Local programs may develop other approaches that are appropriate for their communities, but different from the illustrations in the Guidance.

The proposed Guidance will be reviewed by program practitioners subject experts, and Head Start parents to determine the content and presentation are appropriate.

THE HEAD START PROGRAM ON-SITE MONITORING INSTRUMENT (the OSPRI, for On-Site Program Review Instrument) is a tool that is used by a multi-discipline team of reviewers to help determine if an agency is in compliance with the Head Start Program Performance Standards and other regulations that apply to Head Start programs. Each grantee is monitored at least once every three years.

THE HEAD START PROGRAM PERFORMANCE MEASURES are being designed to assess the quality and effectiveness of the Head Start program nationally through stating outcomes for children and families and through program indicators. These findings will provide a picture of how well the Head Start program is performing, nationally or regionally, at a given point in time.

The Measures provide a process for continuous improvement over time. (The Head Start Performance Measures will neither be used to evaluate individual children or programs nor to monitor them for compliance with the Head Start Program Performance Standards.)

Data sources for the Performance Measures will include classroom and home visit observations, parent interviews, staff interviews, the Program Information Report (PIR), HSCOST (the Head Start cost system), the Head Start Monitoring and Tracking System, Head Start Family Information System (HSFIS), and Regional Office reports.

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Last Modified: 10/31/01


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