The National Reporting System and English Language Learners

NRS reports will support ongoing assessment and contribute to program improvement.
by Tom Schultz and Linda Jagielo

Head Start’s National Reporting System (NRS) is the nation’s largest assessment of the skills and progress of preschoolers, including English language learners. In Fall 2003, Spring 2004, and again in the Fall 2004, over 410,000 children in Head Start programs, including more than 90,000 English language learners, participated in a common, 20-minute one-on-one assessment of language, literacy, and numeracy. Starting in Spring 2004, Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs partic­ipated in the NRS.

Announced in President Bush’s Early Childhood Initiative Good Start, Grow Smart in April, 2002, the NRS is designed to strengthen Head Start program quality, effectiveness and credi­bility. It provides comparable information on children’s progress on a limited set of learning outcomes for all programs nation­wide. Child outcomes areas for the NRS are based on Congressional mandates in the 1998 Head Start Reauthorization Act. The legislation requires the assessment of child outcomes in language, vocabulary, letter knowledge, and early math skills. In addition, the Act requires the assessment of the progress of non-English speaking children in listening to, understanding, and speaking English (see the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework in The Head Start Path to Positive Child Outcomes available at www.headstartinfo.org).

Head Start programs have performed well in implement­ing the National Reporting System. Nearly all Head Start agencies participated; staff were well-prepared to administer the assessments; and both parents and children cooperated with this new approach to documenting the benefits of Head Start services.

Assessing English Language Learners

Special efforts were made to prepare to assess English lan­guage learners. Over 500 staff from programs serving bilin­gual or Spanish-speaking populations were prepared and certi­fied to train local bilingual NRS assessors, who administer both the English and Spanish versions of the NRS assessments.

The assessment begins with a screening procedure to deter­mine a child’s English language proficiency. The assessment process includes several options for English language learners:

• Children whose primary language is Spanish and who do not attain the cutoff score on the English language screener are given only a Spanish version of the NRS.
• Children whose primary language is Spanish and who attain the cutoff score in English receive both the English Children enjoy learning to write their names.
  and Spanish versions of the NRS (at two different times).
• Children whose primary language is other than Spanish or English and who do not attain the cutoff score in the English version do not receive any further assessment.

The extra time and effort it takes to assess some children in two languages makes it possible to compare their progress in language, literacy, and numeracy skills in their home language (Spanish) and in English. This comparative information is important because English language learners may have strong prior knowledge and skills in their home language (Spanish) that would not be evident if they are assessed only in English. They also may show different rates of progress from fall to spring and attain different levels of proficiency on the NRS measures by the end of their Head Start year, depending on the language of assessment.

Based on these procedures, of the 436,000 preschoolers who participated in the Fall 2003 NRS effort:

• 78% were assessed in English only
• 12% were assessed in Spanish only
• 7.5% were assessed in both English and Spanish
• 1.7% were not assessed due to lack of proficiency in either English or Spanish. A similiar pattern emerged from the Spring 2004 and Fall 2004 data.

NRS 2003-4 Assessment Information

Combining data from all Head Start programs, the Fall 2003 and Spring 2004 NRS results indicate that English lan­guage learners are showing progress over the course of the pro­gram year on all of the NRS measures. For example, the pro­portion of Head Start children who showed a basic understand­ing of spoken English sufficient to pass the language screener increased from 90 percent in the fall to 96 percent in the spring. This means that 60 percent of those children who could not pass the English screener in the fall acquired sufficient language skills by the spring to pass the screener.

For children who were classified as English language learn­ers by their program and who passed the English language screener, data from the Fall 2003 and Spring 2004 NRS assess­ment in English are presented in Figure 1. Their understanding of spoken English increased during the program year, as evi­denced by their answering 51% of the items correctly in the fall and 72% correctly in the spring. Not surprisingly, their knowl­edge of English vocabulary also increased, though not as dra­matically. From the fall to the spring, the English language learners also became better at naming letters in the English alphabet – from 22% correct responses to 53% in the spring. When assessed in English, they also showed growth in their early math skills from the beginning of the program year.

Figure 1



Children who passed a similar Spanish language screener and who were assessed in Spanish in the fall and spring also showed growth in all skill areas (see Figure 2). Overall, children assessed in Spanish showed growth in Understanding Spoken Spanish. Their average scores on this section of the NRS went from 66% correct in the fall to 75% correct in the spring. The Spanish speakers also showed some growth in their Spanish vocabulary knowledge.

Figure 2


In the fall, children assessed in Spanish identified an aver­age of 4 letters out of the 30 letters of the Spanish alphabet, or 11 percent. By spring, they identified an average of 10 letters, or 34%. Spanish speakers also showed growth in their Spanish Early Math Skills, from an average of 8 out of 21 items correct in the fall or 39% to an average of 13 items correct in the spring or 60%.

How Is NRS Information Being Used?

Each Head Start grantee and delegate agency received reports on their 2003-4 fall and spring assessments, allowing them to chart the progress of their 4- and 5-year-old children over the course of their Head Start year. This information, along with an analysis of local ongoing child assessments and other program information, will be used in program self-assessment and planning improvement initiatives. NRS reports have expanded each program’s capacity to address questions such as:

• What is the progress of English language learners in the areas of language development, vocabulary, knowledge of letters and early mathematics in both English and Spanish?
• What is the progress of English language learners who enter at different levels of initial skills and knowledge in the areas assessed by the NRS?
• How do our results from the NRS compare with patterns of progress for children in other Head Start programs?
• How do programs with similar proportions of English language learners compare in terms of fostering children’s progress?

In addition to their local program report, agencies may access additional analyses of assessment information in the internet-based NRS Reference Tables. These materials allow programs to compare NRS results for programs with similar characteristics on variables such as part-day vs. full-day program operations, proportion of English language learners and minority group children, percentage of teachers with college degrees, and children in the first or second year of Head Start.

The NRS also is designed to produce information to con­tribute to Head Start training and technical assistance efforts. By analyzing NRS assessments of English language learners and related descriptive information collected in the NRS and in the Program Information Report (PIR) system, regional and Federal staff can answer questions such as:

• What are the characteristics of Head Start programs that are unusually effective in promoting progress for English language learners?
• Are there different patterns of NRS outcomes for English language learners from programs using different curricula?
• Are there different patterns of NRS outcomes for English language learners based on factors such as teachers’ level of education or experience, fluency in Spanish, or use of Spanish in the classroom?

The NRS data from the first program year (Fall 2003 and Spring 2004) are currently being analyzed to provide answers to these questions. As an example of an initial finding, children attending Head Start programs in Puerto Rico show more sub­stantial progress on the Spanish language assessments when compared to children who attend Head Start in other states and regions. This finding reflects the fact that Spanish-speaking chil­dren in Head Start programs in Puerto Rico receive instruc­tional support in Spanish, whereas most children in U.S. main­land programs do not.

The NRS Is Evolving

The Head Start Bureau views the NRS as an evolving con­cept. We will continue to evaluate and work to improve the procedures and the measures. For example, during the program year 2003-4, Spanish-speaking children were assessed in English first and then in Spanish. But as of Fall 2004, Spanish-speaking children went through the language proficiency screener and subsequent assessments first in Spanish and then in English. This change was suggested by representatives of Migrant and Seasonal Head Start who followed this procedure in their initial Spring 2004 NRS assessments. We also anticipate working with a Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Head Start Accountability and Educational Performance Measures in the coming year to review options for improving the NRS, such as incorporating assessments of social and emotional development.

Over the long run, the NRS will complement and enhance other ongoing Head Start quality efforts—Technical Assistance, program monitoring, research and evaluation. The NRS is a means to an end—the goal being to improve program effective­ness and promote the successful learning and healthy develop­ment of all Head Start children.

Tom Schultz was Senior Advisor on Outcomes in the Head Start Bureau.

Linda Jagielo is a 2004-2005 Head Start Fellow at the Head Start Bureau. T: 202-205-8420; E: ljagielo@acf.hhs.gov.