Screening and Assessment in Head Start

How are our children doing? This question stays on the mind of every Head Start and Early Head Start staff member, manager, parent, and community partner. It is the key question we seek to answer in our national research and evaluation studies. And it led the Congress in 1998 to enact new legislative mandates that Head Start programs are beginning to implement to assess children's progress towards specific learning outcomes, and to analyze and use information on child outcomes in their local program self-assessment process.

How are our children doing? A major way we begin to answer this question is through initial screening and ongoing assessment of every child in Head Start and Early Head Start. As mandated in the Program Performance Standards, initial screening of children is carried out to identify evidence of developmental, sensory, or behavioral concerns and to determine if children should receive a more formal evaluation to identify disabilities. Ongoing assessment is also required for each child to identify his strengths and needs, to help tailor learning experiences and other services, and to support staff in communicating and working with parents and families.

This Bulletin provides a wide variety of ideas and strategies on initial screening and ongoing assessment; connections between assessment, curriculum and individualization; and ways to implement new policies on assessing and analyzing information on child outcomes in your program. Authors from the Head Start Bureau, research projects, state government agencies, and local Head Start and Early Head Start programs contributed the following articles to help you think about and work on new ways to improve your program-

• We begin with an article, by Judy Jablon and Amy Dombro, experts in early childhood education and assessment, that reinforces the central importance of staff becoming skilled observers of children and using their observations to enhance children's learning and development.
  
  
• Four articles describe efforts in local Head Start agencies to improve screening, assessment, and linkages with program curriculum. Jan Greenberg tells how East Coast Migrant Head Start created their current screening and ongoing assessment approach-and how they are planning to meet new mandates to use child outcome data in program self-assessment and continuous improvement. Leaders from Head Start programs in Jackson, Michigan, and Seattle, Washington, describe efforts to improve and link curricula and ongoing assessment efforts. Larry Schweinhart and Ann Brown describe how the High/Scope Child Observation Record system is being utilized in Kalamazoo, Michigan, as the foundation for an ongoing child assessment system.
  
  
• Jim O'Brien of the Head Start Bureau provides an article on how initial screening and ongoing assessment successfully supports children with disabilities in Head Start and Early Head Start.
  
  
• Leaders from Early Head Start programs in Vermont, Delaware, and Missouri provide accounts of efforts to involve parents as integral partners in the assessment process; to use a research-based tool to assess the quality of classroom environments to complement child assessment and internal program monitoring efforts; and to use an assessment tool to improve the quality and outcomes of services by home visitors to children and families.
  
  
• Head Start Director Gayle Cunningham shares her perspective on and lessons learned from participating in a Head Start Quality Research Center Study. A summary of recent HSQRC findings accompany her interview.
  
  
• Two articles describe statewide collaborative efforts by Head Start grantees in Rhode Island and Ohio to develop common approaches for assessing and analyzing information on child outcomes.
  
  
• The Head Start Child Outcomes Framework, which accompanied the recent Information Memorandum on Using Child Outcomes in Program Self-Assessment (IM-00-18), is reproduced as an additional resource for readers.
  
  
• Dollie Wolverton of the Head Start Bureau provides an overview of the National Head Start Child Development Institute which provided more than 3200 Head Start managers with a week-long professional development experience keyed to the goal of fostering and assessing progress on child outcomes and school readiness.

How are our children doing? This question was a passionate concern for Helen Taylor, Associate Commissioner of the Head Start Bureau from 1993 until her death on October 3, 2000. Helen worked tirelessly to strengthen program quality, increase funding, and enhance accountability. She believed wholeheartedly in the importance of Head Start agencies using state-of-the-art screening and assessment methods and using assessment to improve curriculum, enrich learning experiences, and engage families as partners. She recognized the challenge of demonstrating accountability for child outcomes in new ways as critical to Head Start's future.We dedicate this Bulletin to her memory.

Tom Schultz is the Director of the Program Support Division, Head Start Bureau.T: 202-205-8323; E: tschultz@acf.dhhs.gov.