HSIPC: Head Start Bulletin--Head Start Highlights: Monitoring Grantee Performance and Quality

By Ann Linehan, Director, Program Support Division, and Rita Schwarz, Program Analyst, Program Management and Operations Branch, Head Start Bureau

Since the start of this initiative, 125 grantees worked to turn their programs around and commit to a philosophy of continuous improvement. Forty programs were terminated; however, the Head Start funds remained in those communities and new Head Start programs were created. Families in these communities did not lose services--they gained a quality Head Start program.

In the Final Report of the Advisory Committee on Head Start Quality and Expansion it was acknowledged that Head Start had some quality issues that had to be dealt with, such as some programs not providing adequate services to children and families.

Helen H. Taylor, Associate Commissioner of the Head Start Bureau, responded to this challenge with enthusiasm and commitment. In August 1994, she brought together Head Start leadership from each regional and central office in an effort to begin the work of developing strategies to address several key areas within Head Start that warranted improvement. One of these areas was poorly performing grantees.

A cross regional workgroup was created and charged with developing effective strategies to improve the Federal role in monitoring and to provide increased technical assistance and timely follow-up to grantees that were not providing quality Head Start programs.

The outcomes of the workgroup had far reaching benefits. The expectations of the Administration were clear: continuing to fund grantees who did not have the capacity, or willingness, to change was not acceptable. The Head Start community heard the message and grantees applauded the Administration's resolve to eliminate programs that either did not have the capacity or willingness to achieve quality.

Since program monitoring is a valuable tool in determining program quality, the work group looked at ways to improve monitoring strategies. The Federal work group shifted monitoring's focus from identifying isolated, non-compliances to examining how non-compliances were linked to over-arching, or systemic, weaknesses.

With the introduction of the Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) in the reauthorized Head Start Act, grantees are required to develop within reasonable time frames, not to exceed a year, solid solutions to eliminate program deficiencies.

Federal staff are held accountable to approve the QIP and to ensure that grantees have access to timely technical assistance. At the conclusion of the QIP period, Federal staff must determine whether or not the grantee has successfully eliminated the deficiencies. Programs that are not able, or are not willing, to eliminate their deficiencies will be terminated.

The Bureau believes that this renewed approach to monitoring is far more helpful to grantees, that it strengthens the federal/grantee partnership, and that it also confirms the Bureau's commitment to quality Head Start programs.

So what are the next steps? Over the past year, Head Start has looked at how it has monitored over the years, has held discussions with many people around the country from inside and outside of the Head Start community of what works and what could be improved in this important effort and is now considering the many recommendations that it has received. The Bureau wants to continue looking more broadly at systemic issues within grantees. Head Start also wants to continue to build each grantee's capacity to monitor, self-assess, and improve its own services, and to continue to develop the partnership between Regional Offices and grantees to work together to strengthen and improve program services. Thinking of better ways to recruit and train highly qualified and competent reviewers is also a high priority.

Revisions to the Performance Standards offer the opportunity to redesign the tool that is used by Federal staff and their review teams to monitor Head Start grantee services. Revising the monitoring instrument will be a task that the Bureau will undertake over this coming year.

In addition to reflecting the new standards, the revised instrument could also incorporate some of the broader thinking around systems and the impact of systems on Head Start services. Among other ideas that are being considered are finding ways to better identify and acknowledge grantee strengths and to identify levels of quality in the services grantees provide.

The Bureau continues to develop strong and supportive oversight mechanisms to ensure that quality Head Start programs will remain as one of its top priorities. It is committed to finding new ways to acknowledge the vast majority of Head Start agencies that provide quality services and that serve as beacons of hope and leadership within their communities. The Bureau is also fervently committed to terminating programs that do not give Head Start children and families the quality they deserve.

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Last Modified: 10/31/01


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