Head Start: Ensuring Quality Through Training and Technical Assistance

Head Start and Early Head Start are comprehensive child development programs that serve children from birth to age five, pregnant women, and their families. These child-focused programs aim to increase the school readiness of young children in low-income families. In 2003, Head Start implemented a new training and technical assistance (T/TA) system with a four-tiered approach to quality:

• The Office of Head Start's T/TA branch provides general direction and guidance.
• Regional offices hire contractors to manage the system and increase program expertise.
• Additional contractors are hired as T/TA specialists and stationed near grantees to help develop plans and secure ongoing T/TA.
• Grantees manage their own resources to address T/TA needs and hire expert consultants as needed.

Mathematica and its subcontractor, Xtria, LLC, are conducting a quality assurance study of this system to document and assess national, regional, and local program activities.

Key Study Components

• At the national level, the study team is describing the roles and activities of the T/TA contractors, as well as observing four major training events and conducting focus groups with participants.
• At the regional level, the team is interviewing office and contractor staff, examining approaches to implementing the new T/TA system, and identifying implementation challenges and successful delivery strategies.
• At the local program level, the team is conducting site visits to 48 randomly chosen grantees to document their perceptions about and use of available services, level of communication and collaboration with regional and local T/TA contractors, and satisfaction with services received from multiple sources (national, regional, and local consultants).
• The team is developing a Management Information System that documents key activities across all 12 regions.
  

Other Project Activities

A related effort is evaluating the effectiveness of Head Start’s Higher Education Grants. The Office of Head Start currently funds 54 grantees to support Head Start staff working toward postsecondary degrees, particularly in early childhood education. These grantees are organized into three consortia, representing historically black colleges and universities, tribal colleges and universities, and Hispanic/Latino-serving institutions. To determine the program’s effectiveness, the study team is conducting 15 site visits to a representative group of participating colleges and universities across the three consortia, as well as focus groups with Head Start and Early Head Start grantees collaborating with the Higher Education Grantees.


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