Effective Head Start Meetings: A Guide For Staff And Parents

1. From Prisons 2 Millions;
2. Parent Involvement in Head Start and Children’s Development: Indirect Effects Through Parenting.
3. Borrowings from other languages as adoptions of novel cultural influences.
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5. Head Start and the Promotion of Parent Involvement!

Hypothesized model of the influence of parent involvement in Head Start on child outcomes mediated through parenting behaviors. Bold arrows are focal paths of interest. Blocked arrows going through dashed box indicate that all child outcomes were regressed on parenting variables investment, controlling behavior, spanking. Although we used a longitudinal data set and focused on the prediction of change in our outcome variables, the data from the Family and Child Experiences Survey FACES ; see http: We can, however, increase our confidence by testing alternative models and comparing them with our hypothesized model.

We tested three such alternatives drawn from the literature.

First, it is possible that parent involvement has direct links with child outcomes, as has been found in previous literature e. To test this possibility, our first alternative model included direct paths from parent involvement to all child outcomes. A third plausible alternative would be that parents whose parenting skills started high, or who were motivated to improve over time, were most likely to be involved in the Head Start program.

By testing these three alternative models we were able to gain more confidence that our final model is robust to other interpretations. The FACES cohort followed a nationally representative sample of 2, three-year-old and 1, four-year-old children enrolled in Head Start centers across the country between their enrollment in Head Start fall and the end of their kindergarten year spring or To achieve the goal of a nationally representative sample, FACES used a probability-proportional-to-size design in the first three stages program, center, and classroom followed by a fourth stage children that used equal probability sampling.

In all, 60 programs were selected, two centers per program, and up to three classrooms per center, for a total of classrooms. Approximately 10 children were selected per class, with an oversampling of 3-year-olds to account for the additional year of follow-up. FACES also used stratification at each stage of selection to ensure sample representativeness for more information, see West et al. The last two exclusions were required for our modeling procedures. Thus, our sample was not representative of Latino dual-language learners in Head Start.

Measures were collected in the fall of Year 1. Children were, on average, Descriptive statistics for the focal variables are presented in Table 2. Internal reliability is reported below for scale scores but not for count variables, for which it is inapplicable. During the fall of , center directors provided information regarding whether their center provided any of the following services to encourage parents to participate in Head Start: Information was also collected regarding the extent to which coordinators were themselves involved in promoting parent involvement.

Parent-Teacher Conferences: Tips for Teachers

Furthermore, when we looked at the number of times they had participated in the Head Start program, we noted that parents reported that they participated in social events an average of six times during the year, whereas they participated in the classroom on a minimum of 14 different occasions, on average. During the spring of each year, mothers reported on whether they had spanked their child during the past week and, if so, how many times range: Parents also reported the degree to which they engaged in controlling behavior toward children, using eight items drawn from the Child-Rearing Practices Report Block, Spanish versions of the assessment were administered to children who failed the language screener.

Published reliabilities of the math sections are high English version: To reduce the risk of spurious associations, all analyses controlled for a comprehensive set of child, family, teacher, classroom, and center covariates. Demographic covariates for both parents were age, education, and employment status.

Several teacher characteristics were included as covariates, namely, education level, years of experience in early education, whether they had received a degree in early childhood education, and their depressive symptoms as measured by the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Because the extent to which parent involvement is promoted in a center is likely determined by both the center director and the education coordinator, who is responsible for ongoing training of teachers, we also included as covariates the highest academic degrees of the director and of the education coordinator, as well as whether each had a degree in early childhood education.

The use of latent variables allows for data reduction and for adjustments for measurement error; thus, when there were multiple measures for the same underlying construct we used latent variables. In general, values greater than. Missing data were addressed with full-information maximum-likelihood estimation for composite measures, missing data were handled at the scale, rather than item, level.

To account for the nested nature of the data, we clustered at the center level in order to adjust the standard errors for children within the same center the equivalent of a two-level model with no predictors at Level 2.

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Finally, we used a longitudinal child-level weight that adjusted for sampling stratification and nonresponse bias to ensure that our sample was representative of the larger population of Head Start attendees. All analyses used the maximum likelihood with robust standard errors method, which is effective if any variables violate normality.

Finding direct and indirect effects in change models can be difficult because much of the variance is already accounted for by the autoregressive paths. Furthermore, if the effects of parent involvement on child outcomes are delivered only through our parenting mediators, the Baron and Kenny method would again overlook some key mediators that are statistically possible and of theoretical importance Hayes, We first conducted a single measurement model for our parent involvement and child outcome latent factors. This model, however, did not fit the data as well: The full hypothesized structural model presented in Figure 1 provided a reasonable fit to the data: Given the complexity of the model, we will summarize the findings by each successive set of dependent variables in the model, namely, involvement, parenting behavior, and child outcomes.

All unstandardized and standardized path coefficients and R 2 s are presented in Table 3. We also provide the percentage of variance accounted for by each of the focal predictors in Table 3. Similar to Hindman and colleagues , we also found that measures of center quality and household factors did not consistently predict parent involvement. Although not shown, we also tested whether the associations between parent involvement and changes in parenting leveled off, but no thresholds were detected.

Thus, although involvement predicted improvements in parenting, there were few indirect effects on child outcomes through these changes in parenting. We did find, however, that improvements in parenting predicted improvements in child outcomes. Furthermore, change in controlling behavior had an indirect effect on change in child outcomes through change in cognitive stimulation and spanking, and these pathways were specific. Despite our well-fitting models, we wished to further strengthen our conclusions by testing three alternative models.

As noted above, the first such alternative was to add direct paths from parent involvement to all of the child outcomes. It is notable that there were no differences in the substantive findings between the alternative model and our hypothesized model; when taking into account the parent mediators, involvement did not directly predict any child outcomes. Thus, we retained our original hypothesized model. Considering that there were no statistical or substantive differences, we concluded that our parent involvement—driven model was not due to child elicitation. Our final alternative model considered whether parents who enter Head Start with high parenting skills became more involved rather than involvement predicting increases in parenting skills over time.

Compared to our original hypothesized model, this alternative non-nested model did not fit the data as well: Although we know that Head Start attendance is associated with positive parenting Chazan-Cohen et al. To better understand why some programs are more successful than others, we need to examine specific processes that might promote both parent and child outcomes. In this sample of Head Start attendees parents were more actively involved in the classroom than in social gatherings at the center; more specifically, parents actively participated in social events at least six times during the year, whereas they participated in the classroom on a minimum of 14 different occasions.

This latter possibility is supported by the fact that families did not experience many obstacles to involvement; however, the obstacles they did encounter were strongly linked with less frequent participation. This is particularly important given that the practical support and services e. Because the level-of-support-and-services variable was reported by the center directors, it may be that level of support and services is an indicator of a highly disadvantaged sample that has many needs, needs that in turn preclude them from being involved in Head Start.

It might also be the case that Head Start centers provide greater support in response to lower levels of involvement, which we unfortunately could not test with the data available. It is intriguing, however, that teacher and staff training in parent involvement was linked with stronger parent involvement, which to our knowledge has not been demonstrated before. This is of considerable importance for Head Start programs because, within the existing literature, not many center-level processes have been found to promote parent involvement in Head Start Castro et al.

Accordingly, teacher and staff training, which is both flexible and affordable, can serve as one means of connecting teachers with parents and ultimately encouraging greater parent involvement. Indeed, this study is consistent with a growing literature indicating that Head Start participation is associated with more positive parenting behaviors e. Similar to the extant literature, we found some specificity of effects. Our use of a nationally representative and longitudinal sample of Head Start attendees is a key strength of this study.

By including repeated measures of our parent and child outcomes over time we were also able to focus on whether parent involvement predicted change in parenting and, in turn, change in child behavior. This approach, along with our inclusion of a comprehensive set of covariates, minimizes the possibility that unmeasured variables account for the relations identified in this study.

Finally, we tested alternative models that rule out other plausible explanations for our findings, thus lending confidence to our conclusions. There are, of course, some limitations to our study. First, it is correlational in nature, and although we controlled for a wide range of covariates with lagged child and parent outcomes we cannot make causal inference because there may still be other omitted variables that are linked with involvement and with our outcomes.

On the basis of the findings reported herein, future intervention research can be designed more precisely, with a focus on the role of parent involvement in facilitating these demonstrated connections. If our results are confirmed with experimental data, then we can draw more definitive conclusions. Second, our focal parenting variables were based on parent report; thus, these variables share method variance that may have inflated the associations among our parenting constructs.

Third, although we included a robust set of classroom- and center-level factors in our models, we did not have in-depth information on other potentially important factors that might facilitate parent involvement, such as the cultural climate of the center. Fourth, although the reliability of our controlling behavior measure was above recommendations in the literature, it still had moderate reliability; thus, the size of the associations between involvement and controlling behavior are conservative.

Recent advances in person-centered modeling, however, present new opportunities in determining which combinations of involvement activities account for the associations documented in this study and therefore require closer attention. Head Start programs, however, have established new father-engagement initiatives to raise awareness regarding the importance of fathers ACF, These initiatives involve teacher and staff training in creating a father-friendly environment and how teachers and staff can build these important connections with fathers.

Finally, as in many meditation models, the indirect effects for parent involvement had very small effect sizes, with standardized coefficients of. The effect of parent involvement on child outcomes, however, ranged from. The latter is smaller, in part because the indirect effect was the product of three regression coefficients. Thus, these small effects should not be dismissed because they can have greater impacts if combined with more direct parent instruction.

We also determined that teacher and staff training can promote parent involvement, whereas family-level barriers reduce it. To increase parent involvement, Head Start should consider devoting more time and resources for teacher and staff training while also offering more opportunities for involvement that fit the schedules of the families they serve. Opinions reflect those of the authors and not necessarily the opinions of the granting agencies. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Author manuscript; available in PMC Apr 1.

Arya Ansari and Elizabeth Gershoff. Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer. The publisher's final edited version of this article is available at J Marriage Fam. See other articles in PMC that cite the published article. Abstract The authors examined the extent to which parent involvement in Head Start programs predicted changes in both parent and child outcomes over time, using a nationally representative sample of 1, three-year-old children over 3 waves of the Family and Child Experiences Survey. Head Start and the Promotion of Parent Involvement The Head Start program is the largest federally funded early childhood compensatory program in the United States, serving nearly 1 million low-income children and families Administration for Children and Families [ACF], The Current Study In this study we examined the programmatic features that promote parent involvement in Head Start settings and whether such involvement constitutes a mechanism for improvements in parenting and in child outcomes.

Using data from a nationally representative sample of Head Start children and families, we addressed the following questions: Which organizational features of Head Start, including practical services and teacher and staff training in parent involvement, promote parent involvement in Head Start? Open in a separate window. Method The FACES cohort followed a nationally representative sample of 2, three-year-old and 1, four-year-old children enrolled in Head Start centers across the country between their enrollment in Head Start fall and the end of their kindergarten year spring or Table 1 Demographic Characteristics of the Sample.

Measures Descriptive statistics for the focal variables are presented in Table 2. Practical support to facilitate involvement During the fall of , center directors provided information regarding whether their center provided any of the following services to encourage parents to participate in Head Start: Parental spanking During the spring of each year, mothers reported on whether they had spanked their child during the past week and, if so, how many times range: Covariates To reduce the risk of spurious associations, all analyses controlled for a comprehensive set of child, family, teacher, classroom, and center covariates.

Results Measurement Model We first conducted a single measurement model for our parent involvement and child outcome latent factors. Structural Model The full hypothesized structural model presented in Figure 1 provided a reasonable fit to the data: Parenting behaviors and child outcomes We did find, however, that improvements in parenting predicted improvements in child outcomes.

Alternative Models Despite our well-fitting models, we wished to further strengthen our conclusions by testing three alternative models. References Administration for Children and Families. Head Start Performance Standards. Department of Health and Human Services; Administration for Children and Families. Head Start program facts Fiscal Year Ansari A, Crosnoe R.

You can also prepare an outline or agenda for conferences and share them with parents so they know what to expect. Some teachers keep worksheets with strengths, needs, and social or behavioral notes to guide them through conferences. If you'll be discussing any problems, make sure to have documentation, such as examples of misbehavior or missed assignments. Also, make sure to inform parents about any problems before the conference. If a parent knows about a concern before the conference, chances are you'll both be better equipped to discuss possible solutions during the conference.

Be sure to communicate the importance of attending conferences at back-to-school night and other parent forums, and let parents know that they are a critical part of their child's instructional team. When you send home information about conference dates and times, give parents several meeting times to choose from.

On the invitation, remind parents that they'll be able to ask questions, because an effective parent-teacher conference is a two-way conversation about students. You might also want to remind parents to be respectful of other parents' time, and be clear that time slots won't be extended if parents arrive late. A week or so before the conferences, send home reminders of where and when the conference will be held, as well as the meeting agenda. If a conflict arises and an in-person meeting is not an option, try to schedule an alternative way to meet, via phone or video. If you'll be phone- or video-conferencing, send home copies of materials ahead of time so parents can have them in hand while you talk.

Create a welcoming environment. Make your classroom inviting by displaying students' work, and making space for the conference with an adult-sized table and chairs. If parents need to bring their child or other siblings, have an area set aside with puzzles, games, worksheets, or computers to limit distractions. Also consider offering healthy snacks or beverages to families. Remember to have paper and pens available so parents can take notes. You also might want to have a box of tissues available for when you have to deliver bad news. When you start the conversation, remind parents that the goal of this meeting is to share information about students' academic progress and growth and how their child interacts in the school environment.

All parents are proud of their kids and want to hear about their child's strengths as well as challenges, so be sure to discuss both — but start with the positives. Discuss progress and growth. Inform parents about their child's ability levels or grade levels in different content areas, using demonstrative work examples or testing results.

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Many parents want to know how their children compare to their peers, but remind them that you're discussing their child's individual instructional levels, not their standing in class. You should, however, inform them about grade-level expectations and how the student is doing in that context. It's all too easy to let discussions veer off-task during conferences, so try to limit all talk to learning and how to support the student's instruction.

K education is loaded with jargon and acronyms, but a parent-teacher conference is not the place to use them. Be sure to explain any terms, curriculum titles, or even words on progress reports that aren't commonly used outside the school setting. Ask questions and listen. Ask parents or guardians for their input about students' strengths, needs, and learning styles, as well as their hopes and dreams for their children.

Parent Involvement in Head Start and Children’s Development: Indirect Effects Through Parenting

Don't forget to ask these simple but important questions: Provide suggestions for activities and strategies to support learning at home. Spend the last few minutes of the meeting on your specific goals for the student. Note the kinds of strategies you'll use, the length of time you'll use them, and when you'll communicate to parents next. Be honest and have a thick skin. It's your responsibility to give parents or guardians an accurate assessment of students' academic progress.

Sometimes this means delivering bad news.