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Linda SmithDeputy Assistant SecretaryACF
FY 16-17: Agency Priority Goal
Improve the quality of early childhood programs for low-income children
Priority Goal
Goal Overview
This area of work has been a Priority Goal for each of the previous Priority Goal iterations. Previously the work was limited to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) programs; HHS intends to keep the same overarching Priority Goal, with its emphasis on improving quality, but add a second Key Indicator for ACF’s Head Start program focused on increasing the percent of teachers with a BA. In addition, HHS will expand the contributing programs to include information regarding partnerships with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to demonstrate that this Priority Goal represents an overarching Departmental priority.
This Priority Goal reflects HHS’ efforts to enhance the quality of early childhood education for low-income children. All three key measures provide unique and important aspects of boosting the quality of early childhood programs and services.
Head Start is the largest early learning funding stream, serving about 1 million low-income children and their families each year. The two key measures for Head Start address the quality of instructional practice in the classroom using Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) scores and workforce qualifications through BA degrees. Reducing the percent of Head Start grantees scoring in the low range on the three CLASS measures is key to our effort to improve the overall quality of instructional practice in Head Start. A key way to achieve this is ensuring that our teachers have evidence-based knowledge, skills, and practice. By emphasizing the credentials of teachers, and striving to increase the percent of Head Start and Early Head Start teachers with a BA degree, ACF is prioritizing a distinct but complementary goal in boosting the quality of Head Start programs. A challenge is the availability of resources to ensure BA teachers are paid commensurate with their qualifications.
The third key measure assesses state Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS), which is another important aspect of quality, but rather than providing information at the individual program level, this indicator gets at quality at the state systems level. QRIS is a system used by states to improve the quality of child care available in communities and increase parents’ knowledge and understanding of the child care options available to them. QRIS supports child care providers through professional development and training as well as financial incentives; help increase parental choice by improving the overall quality of early care and education across a range of settings, giving parents more high-quality child care options; and lead to more low-income children in higher quality child care settings. QRIS across the country have been heavily funded by ACF's Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and CCDF technical assistance funding, and support has played a key role in helping states to design, implement, evaluate, and improve their QRIS. By creating and investing significant resources in QRIS, states have recognized QRIS as a systemic approach for promoting quality of early childhood and afterschool programs, and it is important to track the development and implementation of QRIS across the country.
In order for a QRIS to be considered as meeting high-quality benchmarks, it must 1) be statewide; 2) be eligible to child care centers and family child care homes; 3) include quality improvement indicators that cover learning environments and curriculum, teacher/practitioner standards, and family partnerships and strengthening; 4) use training or on-site consultation to help child care programs attain or maintain quality improvement standards beyond licensing; 5) offer financial incentives for maintaining or increasing quality to child care centers and family child care homes; 6) include quality assessments of child care centers and family child care homes; and 7) use symbols or simple icons that indicate levels of quality as part of resource and referral/consumer education services to parents seeking child care. More than half the states have implemented QRIS open to child care providers across the state, and the majority of the remaining states are piloting or planning QRIS. However, not all states have a QRIS that meets high-quality benchmarks and systemic changes take time to implement.
This goal supports HHS Strategic Goal 3: Advance the Health, Safety, and Well-Being of the American People, in particular Objective A (Promote the safety, well-being, resilience, and healthy development of children and youth.) and Objective B (Promote economic and social well-being for individuals, families, and communities). The new proposed key measure from ACF’s Office of Head Start (OHS) regarding teacher credentialing supports HHS Strategic Plan Goal 4 (Ensure Efficiency, Transparency, Accountability, and Effectiveness of HHS Programs.) Objective C: Invest in the HHS workforce to help meet America’s health and human services needs. This Priority Goal also supports three ACF Strategic Goals – to “Promote economic, health, and social well-being for individuals, families, and communities;” “Promote healthy development and school readiness for children, especially those in low-income families;” and “Promote safety and well-being of children, youth, and families.”
Strategies
The CLASS: Pre-K is a research-based tool that measures teacher-child interaction on a seven-point scale in three broad domains: Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and Instructional Support. OHS successfully began data collection using random samples for the CLASS: Pre-K in the first quarter of FY 2012. In response to the data from the FY 2013 CLASS reviews, OHS developed a system to provide more intentional targeted assistance to those grantees that score in the low range on CLASS. OHS is continuing to flag grantees that score in the low range, conduct analyses on the specific dimension level, which are specific elements or skill areas within each of the three domains, and provide periodic reports to its Regional Offices so they can direct their training and technical assistance (TTA) to specific grantees. For example, concept development, quality of feedback, and language modeling are the three dimensions within the domain of Instructional Support. Providing TTA at the more specific dimension-level supports grantees to focus in on the skills that need improvement.
OHS is also investing in an initiative called Early EdU (https://education.uw.edu/news/earlyedu-aims-boost-early-learning), which is a higher education alliance working to advance early childhood teaching by providing online courses for early childhood educators to prepare them for classroom success. These courses are designed for students working toward a BA degree.
For the ACF Office of Child Care (OCC), the goal is to increase the number of states with Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) that meet the seven high quality benchmarks for child care and other early childhood programs, developed by HHS, in coordination with the Department of Education. Currently, many states with a QRIS meet some, but not all seven, of the outlined high-quality benchmarks. States are making significant progress toward implementing a comprehensive QRIS that meets all outlined quality benchmarks; however, their progress is masked by the single figure reported. To provide a more complete picture of QRIS implementation and improvements across the country, OCC is closely tracking the progress of states that may not meet all quality benchmarks, but that have demonstrated improvements by increasing the number of benchmarks reached. For example, as of FY 2014, at least six states have incorporated six quality benchmarks and at least six states have incorporated five quality benchmarks. Between FY 2011 and FY 2014, 27 states and territories have made progress on at least one of the components of the measure. In addition, targeted technical assistance provided by the National Center for Child Care Quality Improvement, funded by OCC, helps states work toward their goals to improve their QRIS through small group peer-to-peer interactions, national webinars, and topical learning tables related to quality benchmarks.
ACF’s OCC is currently working with the states to implement the first reauthorization of the CCDBG Act in 18 years. Among a comprehensive array of reforms, the new statute includes an increased focus on improving the quality of child care through systemic quality investments, which will help move states toward meeting this priority performance goal. In addition, the statute includes provisions requiring states to evaluate the measurable outcomes of their quality improvement activities.
SAMHSA’s National Center of Excellence (CoE) will help states and communities utilize mental health consultation in early childhood programs to promote the healthy social and emotional development of young children, support caregivers’ use of effective strategies for managing child behaviors, identify developmental and behavioral challenges, and link with community resources. Primary goals of the CoE will be to promote the healthy social and emotional development of infants and young children, and to prevent mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. The CoE will be instrumental in helping states, tribes, and communities to utilize infant and early childhood mental health consultation to support early childhood providers (including child care, home visiting, and preschool programs) and help them to achieve their goals of healthy children and families, school readiness, and success in school and beyond.
The HRSA Home Visiting program builds upon scientific research, which shows that home visits by a nurse, social worker, or early childhood educator during pregnancy and in the first years of life provide important support services to children and families. Home visits improve maternal and child health, prevent child abuse and neglect, encourage positive parenting, and promote child development and school readiness. HRSA’s Home Visiting Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (the HV CoIIN) is a quality improvement collaborative involving grantees and implementing agencies of the federal Home Visiting program. The HV CoIIN aims to achieve breakthrough improvement in learning and results with respect to: 1) developmental screening and access to services; 2) initiation and duration of breast feeding; and 3) alleviation of maternal depression. The HV CoIIN participants also develop and test innovative approaches to enhance family engagement in enrollment, program activities, and transition to appropriate services across the three substantive improvement areas.
Progress Update
Child Care: In FY 2015, 32 states had a QRIS that met high quality benchmarks, meeting the previously established target.1 States expanded from pilot programs to statewide-systems, added financial incentives for child care providers, and increased availability to quality information, leading them to meet more components of the QRIS measure. States were also supported by targeted technical assistance through state specific benchmarks and goals. The FY 2015 results show that states continue to make progress toward implementing QRIS that meet high-quality benchmarks, and the ACF Office of Child Care (OCC) has established a target of 35 states for FY 2016 and 37 states in FY 2017. [ 1The FY 2015 actual result was calculated using information reported in the FY 2016-2018 CCDF State Plans approved in June 2016.]
Currently, many states meet some, but not all seven, of the outlined benchmarks. States are making significant progress toward implementing a comprehensive QRIS that meets all outlined quality benchmarks; however, their progress is masked by the single figure reported. To provide a more complete picture of QRIS implementation and improvements across the country, OCC is closely tracking the progress of states that may not meet all quality benchmarks, but that have demonstrated improvements by increasing the number of benchmarks reached. For example, as of FY 2015, at least 10 states have incorporated six quality benchmarks and at least three states have incorporated five quality benchmarks. Between FY 2011 and FY 2015, 28 states and territories have made progress on at least one of the components of the measure. In addition, targeted technical assistance provided by the new National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance, as well as other technical assistance partners funded by ACF, will continue to help states work toward their goal of improving their QRIS.
Beyond the support provided by OCC and ACF’s technical assistance partners, the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) and Preschool Development Grants (PDG) programs are providing financial support and technical assistance to state grantees to improve the quality of early learning and development for children from low-income families. RTT-ELC, jointly administered by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), have awarded over $1 billion in four-year grants to 20 states since 2011. Each RTT-ELC state committed to building or enhancing high-quality, accountable early learning and development programs through implementation of QRIS statewide, helping states meet the seven high quality benchmarks included in the priority performance goal. Further, in 2015, nearly 70,000 early learning and development programs were included in states’ QRIS - an increase of 85 percent since the start of their grants - with more than 21,000 programs in the highest tiers.1 [1 2015 Progress Update: Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge. (2016, August 1). Retrieved August 30, 2016, from https://elc.grads360.org/services/PDCService.svc/GetPDCDocumentFile?fileId=22717] Additional information on RTT-ELC states’ progress is available at http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-earlylearningchallenge/performa... ED and HHS joinly-administered PDG program is supporting 18 states to expand high-quality preschool in over 230 high-need communities by improving or expanding preschool opportunities.
Completed Milestones:
- CCDF quality spending minimum goes up to 7 percent (from 4 percent). (1st Q FY 2016)
- States and territories report FY 2015 QRIS data in CCDF Plans. (2nd Q FY 2016)
- Analyzed state plans to update FY 2015 QRIS results. (3rd Q FY 2016)
- Published CCDF Final Rule with new quality provisions. (4th Q FY 2016)
Head Start: An analysis of CLASS scores for the most recent cohort of 319 Head Start grantees that received on-site monitoring in the 2015-2016 Head Start “school year” indicates that 24 percent of grantees scored in the low range, thus exceeding the target of 25 percent. All grantees scoring in the low range (below 2.5) in FY 2016 did so for the Instructional Support domain. (Nationwide for the CLASS: Pre-K tool, scores are typically higher in the domains of Emotional Support and Classroom Organization than in the domain of Instructional Support.)
The percentage of grantees scoring below a 2.5 increased two percentage points over the prior year actual; however the data over the past three years has remained relatively stable and significantly improved relative to the FY 2013 result, when the number of grantees scoring below a 2.5 was 31 percent. In response to the data from the FY 2013 CLASS reviews, OHS developed a system to provide more intentional targeted assistance to those grantees that score in the low range on CLASS. OHS is continuing to flag grantees that score in the low range, conduct analyses on the specific dimensions, which are specific elements or skill areas within each of the three domains, and make automated reports available to its Regional Offices so they can direct their TTA to specific grantees. For example, concept development, quality of feedback, and language modeling are the three dimensions within the domain of Instructional Support. Providing TTA at the more specific dimension-level supports grantees to focus in on the skills that need improvement.
A recent analysis of data from the Family and Child Experience Survey (FACES), a federally funded nationally representative survey of Head Start programs provides some evidence that grantee scores on domains of the CLASS have improved over time.2 [N. Aikens, E. Knas, J. Hartog, L. Malone, and L. Tarullo. (under review). Tracking Quality in Head Start Classrooms. OPRE Report # TBD. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.] This analysis demonstrates that over time fewer classrooms scored in the “low” range and more classrooms scored in the “mid” to “high” range on Instructional Support. FACES data also shows a statistically significant increase in the average score and the percentage of Head Start classrooms scoring 3 or higher on Instructional Support between 2006 and 2014. Overall, Head Start classrooms regularly score above a 5 in Emotional Support and Classroom Organization. The FACES data analysis showed that over time fewer classrooms scored in the “mid” range and more classrooms scored in the “high” range on Emotional Support.
In addition to the CLASS measure, ACF will also strive to increase the number of teachers with a Bachelor’s Degree (BA) or higher. By emphasizing the credentials of teachers, ACF is prioritizing a distinct but complementary goal in boosting the quality of Head Start programs. In FY 2016, 55 percent of Head Start and Early Head Start teachers had a BA degree or higher, falling short of the target of 62 percent. Of the 68,400 Head Start and Early Head Start teachers in FY 2016, 37,900 have a BA degree or higher. Analysis of the data indicates that a key reason for the decrease relative to the prior year is that a lower percentage of teachers in Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) programs have BA degrees. This year is the first year the Program Informaiton Report, the annual survey of Head Start grantees, collects data on these teachers, which has an effect on the national average. The purpose of the EHS-CCP grants is to improve the care of infants and toddlers through partnerships with Early Head Start programs and child care programs that agree to meet the Head Start Program Performance Standards, which includes requirements for teacher qualifications. ACF anticipates qualifications will increase as these partnerships continue. ACF is investing in an initiative called Early EdU (https://education.uw.edu/news/earlyedu-aims-boost-early-learning), which is a higher education alliance working to advance early childhood teaching by providing online courses for early childhood educators to prepare them for classroom success. These courses are designed for students working toward a BA degree. ACF is also working within states to strengthen early care and education professional development systems and promote articulation agreements within and across institutions of higher education. Articulation agreements allow students to apply credits earned in one program toward another program, which facilitates them moving along their educational pathway toward a BA.
Completed Milestones:
- OHS to continue implementing an enhanced data system for CLASS TA activities. (1st Q FY 2016)
- OHS to continue analyzing data on CLASS dimensions to target T/TA. (2nd Q FY 2016 and Ongoing)
- OHS updates data system to provide automated reports to Regional Offices highlighting grantees with scores below 2.5 to focus T/TA. (3rd Q FY 2016)
- Worked with states to strengthen early care and education professional development systems and promoted articulation agreements within and across institutions of higher education. (4th Q FY 2016 and Ongoing)
SAMHSA: The Center of Excellence for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (CoE) continues its work building a state of the art toolbox that will help states, tribes and communities strengthen their early care and education and home visiting programs, better addressing the social/emotional and behavioral needs of children and families and improving quality of care and outcomes for young children.
In this quarter, the CoE continued to revise and refine the toolbox and prepare for the next stage of rollout of the Center of Excellence. In addition to completion of each of the toolbox modules by the expert workgroups, the three lead federal agencies (SAMHSA, ACF, and HRSA) conducted thorough reviews of the modules and provided feedback and suggestions to the developers. The interactive toolbox is being designed to include practical and usable tools to increase access to and quality of mental health consultation in early care and education and home visiting programs. Modules of the toolbox include: models for mental health consultation; best practices for research and evaluation to measure efficacy and assure quality; core competencies and training for consultants; strategies for financing mental health consultation; messaging and communications; and guidance on building state and tribal systems to support and sustain mental health consultation. The toolbox will address the issue of inequity and disparities in care and outcomes for young children, and will pay particular attention to the needs of children in Tribal communities. The toolbox will be completed in December 2016 and will be posted on the SAMHSA website.
The focus for the upcoming quarter is on completion and widespread dissemination of the toolbox (targeting policymakers; state, tribal and community leaders; early care and education providers; and home visiting programs across the nation), as well as rollout of the next phase of the Center of Excellence, which will include intensive training and technical assistance to approximately 15 states and tribes to assist them in using the Toolbox to build robust systems for infant and early childhood mental health consultation. States and tribes will be selected and paired with technical assistance providers in the first quarter of FY 2017.
Also this quarter, work is underway on a national messaging campaign to raise awareness about the unique value of infant and early childhood mental health consultation, and its critical role in promoting the mental health of young children, improving the quality of care in early care and education settings and home visiting programs, and reducing suspensions and expulsions. Rollout of the messaging campaign and widespread dissemination of the Toolbox will begin in early 2017. Data on rollout activities will also be available in FY 2017 and will include information about success of webinars promoting the toolbox, utilization of the toolbox via the SAMHSA website, and initial successes in the provision of training and technical assistance to the pilot sites.
The Center of Excellence continues to be guided by a team of federal staff from SAMHSA, HRSA and ACF.
Completed milestones:
- Convened a national Expert Workgroup to develop a state-of-the-science IECMHC Toolkit based on breakthrough thinking from national leaders across multiple areas of focus, including messaging, research and evaluation, models, financing. Competencies are being developed. (1st Q FY 2016)
- Through the CoE, SAMHSA held 20 workshop mtgs of the expert teams developing the IECMHC toolbox; created website for toolbox and provide regular updates to the field (website went live May 2016). (2nd Q FY 2016)
- CoE expert workgroup completed modules for the MH Consultation Toolbox to be released September 2016. SAMHSA began work on national messaging campaign to raise awareness about infant and ECMHC. (3rd Q FY 2016)
- SAMHSA worked towards finalizing and planning for dissemination of the Toolkit. Finalized plans for providing intensive T/TA to 12-15 states/tribal nations to support them in successfully implementing, funding, evaluating, and sustaining IECMHC, including recruitment of TA specialists, criteria for inclusion, and plans for rollout. (4th Q FY 2016)
Next Steps
The following milestones are anticipated for future progress on this goal:
1st Quarter FY 2017:
- Child Care: CCDF funding set-aside to improve infant/toddler quality goes into effect; publish revised Quality Progress Report to capture additional QRIS data.
- Head Start: OHS to summarize FY 2016 data by CLASS domain.
- SAMHSA: Toolbox modules and preparations for the website launch in Q2; pilot sites to be selected and matches with expert mentors.
2nd Quarter FY 2017:
- Head Start: OHS to expand and market the Early Educator Central web portal that offers information and resources related to articulation agreements and Professional Development systems building in order to promote infant-toddler educators in moving along their educational and career pathways toward a Bachelor's Degree (BA).
- SAMHSA: Toolbox will be launches on the SAMHSA website, followed by webinars to promote widespread use of the Toolbox in conjunction with rollout of the messaging campaign.
3rd Quarter FY 2017:
- Child Care: OCC TA partners help states implement quality requirements of CCDF Final Rule.
4th Quarter FY 2017:
- Head Start: OHS to provide targeted TA to grantees on approaches to improving Instructional Support, including practice-based coaching, process consultation, and implementation of the new Early Learning Outcome Framework. (Ongoing)
Expand All
Performance Indicators
Increase the percentage of teachers in Head Start and Early Head Start that have a Bachelor's Degree (BA) or higher
Increase the number of states with Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) that meet high quality benchmarks for child care and other early childhood programs developed by HHS.
Reduce the proportion of Head Start grantees receiving a score in the low range on the basis of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS: Pre-K).
Contributing Programs & Other Factors
Head Start (http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ohs) is a federal program that provides comprehensive developmental services for America's low-income, preschool children ages three to five and their families. Head Start promotes the school readiness of young children from low-income families through agencies in their local community. In addition to education services, programs provide children and their families with health, nutrition, social, and other services. Head Start services are responsive to each child and family's ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage.
Early Head Start (http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ohs) is a federal program that serves pregnant women, infants, and toddlers. Early Head Start programs are available to the family until the child turns 3 years old and is ready to transition into Head Start or another pre-K program. Early Head Start helps families care for their infants and toddlers through early, continuous, intensive, and comprehensive services. Head Start and Early Head Start programs support the mental, social, and emotional development of children from birth to age 5.
CCDF (http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/occ ) is a joint federal/state program, administered by the states, that provides child care financial assistance to low income working families. CCDF is a multi-billion dollar federal and state partnership administered by the Office of Child Care to promote family economic self-sufficiency and to help children succeed in school and life through affordable, high-quality early care and afterschool programs. CCDF improves the quality of care to support children's healthy development and learning by supporting child care licensing, quality improvements systems to help programs meet higher standards, and support for child care workers to attain more training and education.
SAMHSA will also contribute to this Priority Goal, primarily through its new National Center of Excellence for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation to be launched in September 2015. The National Center of Excellence is being directed by SAMHSA and includes partnership with HRSA and ACF. The National Center of Excellence builds on the emerging research linking mental health consultation with multi-level positive outcomes for children, families, and teachers and early care and education settings.
HRSA is another HHS contributing agency to the goal of improving the quality of early childhood programs for low-income children, specifically as related to early childhood health and well-being. A key example of this is the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, administered by HRSA in close partnership with ACF and the associated Home Visiting Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (the HV CoIIN). The Collaborative is a quality improvement collaborative involving grantees and implementing agencies of the federal Home Visiting program.
No Data Available
