Program Improvement Efforts for Head Start Families to Show More Research Paper

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Head Start Program Improvement Efforts for Families to Show More Parental Engagement and Involvement with Children's Education.

Description of the local problem (The local problem that prompted the study is clearly defined and is discussed in terms of the local setting and the larger population or education situation):

According to the Head Start standards for family engagement and involvement, all Head Start programs must implement the Parent, Family and Community Engagement (PFCE) framework. This is a research-based approach to program change showing how the schools can work with families to improve and promote parent and family engagement and children's learning and development. If this important aspect of the program were omitted, student readiness for kindergarten and sustained development would be at risk. As a result, the Head Start preschool children would not be fully prepared for kindergarten.

The immediate issues, concerns or gaps in this program that need to be addressed include most especially securing additional parental involvement. There is a growing body of evidence that indicates parental involvement relates positively to academic achievement (Chang & Park, 2009). The concern is that children who do not get educational support from their families end up performing poorly in school and also continue to struggle academically throughout their lives. The research to date confirms that children learn and perform better at school with family, school and community support (Epstein, 2001). One of the major constraints concerning the families of interest in this study is that parents are mostly high school dropouts and require a great deal of support financially as well as educationally. The main contextual problem could therefore relate to the potential for poor study habits to be passed from one generation to the next. The lack of education, the lack of work skills and the strong negative effects of the symptoms of poverty all combine to further exacerbate the situation. In this regard, the Head Start organization's mission is to serve the children and their families and improve the lives of the low-income children by providing a quality and comprehensive child development preschool program. These are important issues because fully 90% of Head Start parents earn less than the federal poverty guideline for their families (Ceglowski, 2009). Moreover, there is a growing body of evidence that indicates low-income socioeconomic conditions during early childhood can have profound long-term consequences, reinforcing and sustaining disparities over the lifespan (Anderson, Foster & Frisvold, 2010).

Parental engagement and involvement are critical success factors for Head Start children. The newly implemented mandate for school readiness goals established by the state requires full parental engagement and family partnerships with the schools. If the effectiveness of parental engagement is not achieved, student readiness for school and a lack of academic progress for Head Start children will remain salient issues. This at-risk population will continue to fall behind their peers when they reach grade school, with even more risks and challenges awaiting them down the road academically and later in life.

By any measure, the children served by Head Start are at-risk for a number of reasons. These children have limited exposure to early literacy and many have already fallen behind their peers because their parents have not realized the importance of reading to their children and that early literacy will help prepare the students for kindergarten (McDermott, Rikoon & Waterman, 2012). This study will help bridge the gap for kindergarten readiness, give parents necessary parenting skills, support family well being, build strong relationships between parents and their children, encourage ongoing learning and development for parents and their children and instill a desire to improve their overall educational background and perhaps a desire to go back to school for self-improvement. The relationship of the problem to the larger educational setting as presented in the professional and scholarly literature shows that when the Head Start program was originally developed 1965, the initiative was designed to be a "comprehensive" program intended to assist young children from lower-income families (Gormley, Phillips, Adelstein & Shaw, 2010). The guidelines program objectives for Head Start were designed to include concept s from the fields of health, social services, and education (Gormley et al., 2010).

The learning and work environment for this needs assessment plan is Head Start Schools of Lake County in Illinois. This institution has a population of about 800 students with over 60 -- 70 teachers, 11 site directors, an assistant Head Start Director and a Head Start Director. This is a preschool setting where we attend to the academic needs of at risk children and provide social services for the whole family.

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The major stakeholders for our Head start schools include the federal government who funds most of the program, the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), the Executive Director, the Head Start director and the assistant Head Start director, parents of the young children, classroom teachers and center directors as well as the Board of Directors. The office of Head Start reported from the Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center that (ECLKC) that, the lack of parental engagement when children are at-risk, other symptoms more than often will include inconsistent nurturing, harsh discipline, and even the lack of attachment to a caring adult. The result of such experiences to the rest of the community could show some lasting consequences including affecting the overall health and well being of the life of the child up to adult hood. It could also result in neglect and abuse therefore affecting the entire community and the in the short and the long run (Office of Head Start, 2009).

2. Rationale of the local problem and Purpose of the study (The rationale for choosing this problem is clearly articulated. The rationale consists of evidence that the problem exists and explains why there is a need to study and address this problem. The purpose or intent of the study is explained):

The local problem that the Head Start community continues to experience can be seen in some areas, including a paucity of parental involvement and engagement which remain lacking. There are monthly reports that demonstrate how the Head Start teachers must document and present information concerning parental involvement as well as collecting in-kind documents that the parents must turn in whenever they volunteer in their child's classrooms. Out of 698 families, enrolled in the Head Start Program, only a small number (approximately 75 families) participate or volunteer in their children's classrooms. More troubling still, classroom teachers sent home lending library books for these families to read to their children and requested they return them to the school's library with their feedback concerning their experiences. All told, the school over 450 books in 2012 that were never returned and many of the parents admitted that they simply had not read to their children. The parent teacher conferences also report very low numbers, with teachers reporting a 25% participation rate for parent teacher conferences. There is a monthly parent meeting scheduled for the families in the different Head Start sites and out of 120 families, just six (or 2%!) attend them regularly. The family developmental specialists are tasked with setting small, reachable goals for the families in order to help them begin the process to get our to poverty, however, these goals are difficult to establish for most of the families and even after some of them are set, again with only about 2% of the families reaching their goals. There are many behavior issues that the classroom teachers experience in the classrooms and it is very hard to set up meetings with the families in order to set up behavior plans with the families. There are many children who experience some learning challenges in the classrooms and it is again very hard to get the families to provide parental consent in order for the children to be observed by the school psychologist to determine if the child needs to have an individualized educational plan (IEP). There are a few parent classes offered by Head Start and sponsored by the local community college that they should take advantage of, but again, the only a couple of the families do attend. These results and patterns when it comes to parent involvement and engagement have not changed in so many years, and only continues to be greater as the economy suffers and the poverty rate grows greater. The majorities of our Head Start families are still not ready to fully become fully involved and fully engaged in their children's education as yet.

In the Family and Community Engagement Framework, the concerns that families are not able to meet their needs, experiencing income and employment difficulties or even facing homelessness are some of the factors that contribute to the lack of parental engagement. If these problems go unattended to, and if the Head Start organization does not implement good parental engagement programs, parent's involvement is likely not to be present. The Head Start children, who are already at-risk, are highly likely to remain less prepared for Kindergarten and may find.....

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