Head Start
Curriculum Use and Individual Child Assessment in Cognitive and Language Development
Gao ID: GAO-03-1049 September 12, 2003
To enhance Head Start's contribution to the school readiness of children from low-income families, the 1998 amendments to the Head Start Act provided for updating the Head Start performance standards to ensure that when children leave the program, they have the basic skills needed to start school. Head Start's performance standards for education and early childhood development require that the programs' curricula support each child's cognitive and language development, including emergent literacy skills. In preschool children, cognitive and language development refers to the fundamental abilities needed to reason and to speak a language. Skills in emergent literacy are the precursors to reading, such as learning the letters of the alphabet. The curriculum Head Start programs use must meet the definition for a written curriculum in Head Start's performance standards. Programs have the option of developing their own curriculum, using a curriculum developed locally or by the state education agency, and adopting or adapting a model developed by an educational publisher. Programs also may use teacher mentoring and individual child assessment to help implement the curriculum. As reauthorization of Head Start approached, Congress asked us to answer questions about Head Start programs' efforts to prepare children for school: (1) to what extent have Head Start programs made progress in meeting performance standards for cognitive and language development since they took effect in January 1998? (2) to what extent has local Head Start programs' use of curricula changed since the performance standards for children's cognitive and language development were issued? (3) to what extent have local Head Start programs used teacher mentoring and individual child assessments to support curriculum planning?
We found that data from Head Start compliance reviews conducted during 2000-02 indicated that most programs met performance standards for overall curriculum and for cognitive and language development. Of all 1,532 programs in HHS's 10 regions, HHS determined that the highest percent found out of compliance with any one of seven specific performance standards for cognitive and language development was 10 percent. Among the programs cited for compliance issues related to these standards, the areas most in need of improvement included (1) using classroom activities and materials that were sufficiently adapted to each child's developmental level and (2) using continuous observation and assessment to support each child's instruction in cognitive and literacy skills. For the most part, Head Start teachers reported that children were in programs that used a specific curriculum or combinations of curricula; in 1998 and 2000, the largest percentages were in programs that used either High Scope or Creative Curriculum. Different methodologies for each survey precluded making comparisons over time. In 2000, children were more likely to listen to stories for which they see print, to learn about prepositions, new words, the conventions of print and letters, and to retell stories on a daily or almost daily basis, than to experience other language development activities, such as working on phonics, writing their name, or learning about rhyming words and word families. Of those who had a mentor, teachers of about two-thirds of Head Start children received mentoring visits, weekly or bi-weekly. In 2000, teachers of an estimated 78 percent of Head Start children used individual assessments in their small group instruction and in overall curriculum planning. Almost 90 percent of Head Start children received individual assessments in cognitive and language development. About half were assessed in mathematics and emergent literacy. The children received individual assessments at least once a year.
GAO-03-1049, Head Start: Curriculum Use and Individual Child Assessment in Cognitive and Language Development
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Report to Congressional Requesters:
United States General Accounting Office:
GAO:
September 2003:
Head Start:
Curriculum Use and Individual Child Assessment in Cognitive and
Language Development:
GAO-03-1049:
Contents:
Letter:
Appendix I: Congressional Briefing Slides: Head Start:
Abbreviations:
FACES: Family and Child Experiences Survey:
HHS: Department of Health and Human Services:
United States General Accounting Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
September 12, 2003:
The Honorable George Miller
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on Education and the Workforce
House of Representatives:
The Honorable Dale E. Kildee
Ranking Minority Member
Subcommittee on Education Reform
Committee on Education and the Workforce
House of Representatives:
To enhance Head Start's contribution to the school readiness of
children from low-income families, the 1998 amendments to the Head
Start Act provided for updating the Head Start performance standards to
ensure that when children leave the program, they have the basic skills
needed to start school.[Footnote 1] Head Start's performance standards
for education and early childhood development require that the
programs' curricula support each child's cognitive and language
development, including emergent literacy skills. In preschool children,
cognitive and language development refers to the fundamental abilities
needed to reason and to speak a language. Skills in emergent literacy
are the precursors to reading, such as learning the letters of the
alphabet. The curriculum Head Start programs use must meet the
definition for a written curriculum in Head Start's performance
standards. Programs have the option of developing their own curriculum,
using a curriculum developed locally or by the state education agency,
and adopting or adapting a model developed by an educational publisher.
Programs also may use teacher mentoring and individual child assessment
to help implement the curriculum.
As reauthorization of Head Start approached, you asked us to answer
these questions about Head Start programs' efforts to prepare children
for school:
1. To what extent have Head Start programs made progress in meeting
performance standards for cognitive and language development since they
took effect in January 1998?
2. To what extent has local Head Start programs' use of curricula
changed since the performance standards for children's cognitive and
language development were issued?
3. To what extent have local Head Start programs used teacher mentoring
and individual child assessments to support curriculum planning?
To determine what progress has been made in meeting the new standards,
we used data from Head Start's compliance reviews. We analyzed the
percentage of Head Start programs that met overall performance
standards for curriculum and the percentage that met seven specific
performance standards for cognitive and language development. To
examine local Head Start programs' use of curricula, mentoring, and
individual child assessments, we analyzed data from the Department of
Health and Human Services' (HHS) Family and Child Experiences Survey
(FACES). FACES is a series of longitudinal surveys of nationally
representative samples of Head Start children.[Footnote 2] We used data
from the spring 1998 and fall 2000 teacher interviews, which contained
information about types of Head Start curricula and classroom
activities, the percentage of teachers who received mentoring visits,
the percentage of Head Start children who received individual child
assessments and how teachers used the assessment information. Although
limitations in the FACES data did not allow us to determine change in
curricula and classroom activities over time, the data did permit us to
describe Head Start curricula and classroom activities at two points in
time. Information on mentoring and individual child assessment was
available only for fall 2000. We also interviewed officials in 9 of 10
HHS regional offices about Head Start programs' curriculum practices
and analyzed HHS' 2002 Program Information Report data on curricula.
The Program Information Report contains basic information about Head
Start programs' operating characteristics and services. All Head Start
and Early Head Start programs are required to submit data for the
Program Information Report annually. We conducted our work between
February and June 2003 in accordance with generally accepted government
auditing standards.
We provided a briefing on the results of our work to staff of the House
Committee on Education and the Workforce on May 15, 2003. We provided
additional information in a second briefing on June 6, 2003. This
report formally conveys the information provided during those
briefings.
In summary, we found that data from Head Start compliance reviews
conducted during 2000-02 indicated that most programs met performance
standards for overall curriculum and for cognitive and language
development. Of all 1,532 programs in HHS's 10 regions, HHS determined
that the highest percent found out of compliance with any one of seven
specific performance standards for cognitive and language development
was 10 percent. Among the programs cited for compliance issues related
to these standards, the areas most in need of improvement included (1)
using classroom activities and materials that were sufficiently adapted
to each child's developmental level and (2) using continuous
observation and assessment to support each child's instruction in
cognitive and literacy skills.
For the most part, Head Start teachers reported that children were in
programs that used a specific curriculum or combinations of curricula;
in 1998 and 2000, the largest percentages were in programs that used
either High Scope or Creative Curriculum. Different methodologies for
each survey precluded making comparisons over time. In 2000, children
were more likely to listen to stories for which they see print, to
learn about prepositions, new words, the conventions of print and
letters, and to retell stories on a daily or almost daily basis, than
to experience other language development activities, such as working on
phonics, writing their name, or learning about rhyming words and word
families.
Of those who had a mentor, teachers of about two-thirds of Head Start
children received mentoring visits, weekly or bi-weekly. In 2000,
teachers of an estimated 78 percent of Head Start children used
individual assessments in their small group instruction and in overall
curriculum planning. Almost 90 percent of Head Start children received
individual assessments in cognitive and language development. About
half were assessed in mathematics and emergent literacy. The children
received individual assessments at least once a year.
We provided a draft of this report to HHS for review and comment. HHS
indicated that it had no general comments but provided written
technical comments, which we incorporated as appropriate.
We are sending copies of this report to relevant congressional
committees and other interested parties. We also will make copies
available to others upon request. This report will also be available on
GAO's Web site at http://www.gao.gov.
If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please
contact me or Betty Ward-Zukerman at (202) 512-7215. Sara Edmondson,
Luann Moy, Christopher Moriarity, and Elsie Picyk also made key
contributions to this report.
Marnie S. Shaul
Director, Education, Workforce, and Income Security Issues:
Signed by Marnie S. Shaul:
[End of section]
Appendix I: Congressional Briefing Slides: Head Start:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
[End of section]
FOOTNOTES
[1] Pub. L. 105-285, Title I, Sec. 108 (amending sec. 641A of the Head
Start Act).
[2] Nicholas Zill, et al., Head Start FACES (2000): A Whole-Child
Perspective on Program Performance, Fourth Progress Report, A report
prepared for Child Outcomes Research and Evaluation, Office of
Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and
Families, Department of Health and Human Services, May 2003, provides
additional details about the FACES sample design.
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