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Secondary Analysis of Head Start Data

For the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, SRI is conducting a 2-year secondary analysis of the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES 2000) dataset. The analyses are addressing important questions about four subgroups of children participating in Head Start programs who are among those with the highest risk for poor health and developmental and school readiness outcomes—those who are English language learners and those with disabilities and other special needs, health concerns, and cumulative environmental risk.

For these four subgroups, SRI will identify variables related to child characteristics and child outcomes, as well as family and program factors that may mediate between the two. The research questions are aimed at understanding whether and how program and family characteristics relate to variations in child outcomes within subgroups. The approach will involve descriptive analyses, data reduction to create summary variables, and multivariate and growth curve analyses to examine factors related to child outcomes and growth trajectories.

The FACES 2000 dataset provides a unique opportunity to conduct more complex modeling and multivariate analyses than have been done to date, analyses that capitalize on the longitudinal nature of the data and the multiple domains and repeated measures used. For each at-risk subgroup of children, analyses will yield (1) a strong descriptive understanding of the children, their families, and their Head Start program experiences; (2) models of how these factors relate to positive child growth trajectories; and (3) identification of the extent to which that combination of factors is similar to the factors that explain optimal outcomes for children participating in Head Start who are not in the four subgroups of primary interest. This overall approach will provide considerable new information that is critical for improving services for populations currently served by Head Start and at highest risk for poor developmental and school readiness outcomes.

(Dept. of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, 2007-2009)

Key Staff

Principal Investigator: Donna Spiker

Data Programmer/Manager: Cyndi Williamson

Staff: Lauren Barton, Kathleen Hebbeler, Harold Javitz, Ascencion Villanueva