The Building Blocks of Excellence

Custom Designing Your Head Start Program

Sponsored content contributed by Essential Elements

The Head Start Program Performance Standards are the foundation upon which we design and deliver comprehensive, high quality services for children and families. These individualized services are in place to prepare children to become school-ready and to partner with families on the road to self-sufficiency. The new Head Start Program Performance Standards are less prescriptive, giving Head Start programs greater flexibility in improving outcomes. The shift from a primarily compliance-focused culture to an outcomes-based culture gives Head Start and Early Head Start Directors more opportunities to custom design their program to meet the specific needs of their own community.

Data and Decision Making

The new Head Start Program Performance Standards state that programs must use data to improve the services for children and families. Data is now at the forefront of decision-making. Head Start and Early Head Start programs must develop a culture of data-driven decision making, the process of making choices based on an analysis of programmatic information. As you consider multiple data sources and analyze the results, you are able to create changes that increase your program’s overall quality and improve child and family outcomes. Critical data sources include your Community Assessment, Self-Assessment, CLASS data, child assessment data, enrollment data, family engagement data, ongoing monitoring data as well as data from Monitoring Reviews, just to name a few.

Using data to make decisions that result in improved outcomes also requires another element that’s critical in designing a successful Head Start and Early Head Start program ⎼ strong leadership skills. Strong leaders are committed to excellence from themselves and they set high expectations across the program. Excellent leadership includes delivering exceptional customer service to children and families, using data to make programmatic decisions, and having effective and efficient systems in place. Leading by example, building upon each employee’s strengths and being laser focused on results are fundamental qualities of a strong leader. Being a leader is about building a culture of going above and beyond both in attitude and in action.

We believe that certain building blocks must be in place in order to create a high quality Head Start and Early Head Start program that meets the needs of the children and families in your community. These include the following:

Having an effective system of program planning in place

It’s critical to have broad, long-range goals that define what your program wants to accomplish… as well as short-term objectives that are specific and measurable. As data is the driving force of decision-making, it’s important that the goals and objectives are based on a program’s key documents. Strategic planning is a great opportunity to bring stakeholders together, provide focus for the program and ensure that everyone is on the same page.

High quality teaching practices in the classroom

Effective learning is achieved when children are fully engaged. This occurs when children are actively involved and energized by the material being presented. Positive teacher/child interactions are a foundational element of children’s learning and cognitive development. The classroom environment should be one that captures children’s inquiry, promotes creativity and encourages problem-solving skills. Equally important is the intention on the part of the teacher. Intentional teaching is planning with children’s outcomes in mind and seeking out every opportunity to help children progress on their road to school readiness.

Strong partnerships with families

Finding the most successful way to build relationships with parents is essential in order to provide high quality services to children and families. Engage and build connection with parents by listening with an open mind. Initiate “rich” conversations with parents that get to the heart of where parents are and where they want to be. Family Partnership Agreements are intentional, purposeful and based on the strengths and needs of each family. As you invite each family to participate in the goal setting process, work in partnership with parents to create realistic and measurable goals that will support families on their road to self-sufficiency.

Staff who receive ongoing professional development

Ensure that the training is custom designed to meet the specific needs of your staff. Create the trainings so that they are highly interactive with a lot of hands-on activities. This “learning by doing” approach results in high impact learning. Consider training topics that will have a direct impact on providing high quality and responsive services to children and families such as “The Impact of Poverty”; “Engaging Learners through Intentional Teaching”; “Interpreting Data to Drive Instruction”; “Building Successful Relationships with Families”; “Becoming Trauma Informed”; “In the Door & On the Floor: Home Visits that Work”; “Leadership Development”; and “Taking Care of Yourself & Your Families.”

A fully engaged Board of Directors and Policy Council

The Board of Directors and Policy Council play an important role in your program. The new Head Start Program Performance Standards make it clear that Program Governance is in place to provide oversight of high quality services for Head Start and Early Head Start children and families. The Board of Directors is legally and fiscally responsible for your Head Start program. The Policy Council is responsible for the direction of your Head Start program. It’s important that your Board of Directors and Policy Council receive comprehensive training in order to function at their highest level.

These building blocks will provide you with what is needed to custom design your own high quality Head Start or Early Head Start program… an exciting opportunity afforded to us by the new Head Start Program Performance Standards!

About Essential Elements

Essential Elements provides comprehensive services to Head Start and Early Head Start programs including training for staff, new Head Start directors, new content area managers, Policy Council and Board of Directors, as well the creation of Community Assessments & Wage Comparability Studies, CLASS Observations, ITERS & ECERS Observations, mentor coaching, writing 5-year grant applications, preparation for Federal Monitoring Reviews, Strategic Planning, and more. Learn more at www.hsessentials.com or contact Essential Elements (deborahkaiser@hsessentials.com or 713–594–7060) to discuss your T&TA needs.