Implementation of PRISM: Program Review Instrument for Systems Monitoring of Head Start and Early Head Start Grantees

ACYF Administration on Children, Youth and Families	U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Administration for Children and Families
	1. Log No. ACYF-IM-HS-00-21	2. Issuance Date: 09/15/00
	3. Originating Office: Head Start Bureau
	4. Key Word: PRISM & Fiscal Year 2001 Head Start Monitoring

INFORMATION MEMORANDUM

TO: All Head Start and Early Head Start Grantees and Delegate Agencies

SUBJECT: Implementation of PRISM: Program Review Instrument for Systems Monitoring of Head Start and Early Head Start Grantees

At least once every three years, each Head Start and Early Head Start program receives a comprehensive on-site review by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). These reviews play a vital role in assuring that Head Start programs are providing high quality services. This Information Memorandum discusses the implementation of the new monitoring process.

After a series of revisions, nation-wide field testing, and with much input from the Head Start community, a new instrument and process for program monitoring is ready for implementation. The new instrument and process is known as PRISM- Program Review Instrument for Systems Monitoring. Federal staff will use PRISM to monitor grantees beginning October 1, 2000 (Fiscal Year 2001).

The PRISM process uses an integrated, comprehensive, and outcome-focused approach to ensure compliance with regulations. This approach promotes quality and supports programs in delivering services for children and families in a more holistic manner Five key principles form the foundation for PRISM:

Federal staff and review teams work in partnership with local program staff to conduct PRISM reviews. Program staff provide review teams with information on their community, organization, management systems and program services;
The process is a holistic systems-based approach. Review teams determine how standards are implemented from the context of the "big picture" instead of concentrating on predetermined outcomes and individual standards;
The process respects local ownership of programs by requiring reviewers to acknowledge the flexibility that programs have in designing service delivery and to base decisions about program compliance only on regulations. Frequently, reviewers are not sufficiently informed about your community to make specific suggestions on how you should change your program. Because of this, review teams will no longer make recommendations or provide technical assistance.
Review teams rely on "multiple modes of inquiry": interviews, observations, documentation review and analysis to validate that agencies have implemented the Head Start Performance Standards and other program requirements; and
The entire team makes review decisions through consensus.

The Head Start Performance Standards and other regulations require agencies to implement an array of program services and to establish a set of management systems for supporting these services. When reviewing programs, reviewers will examine the quality of services, the effectiveness of management systems and the impact of systems on services.

The instrument begins with the Overview of the PRISM Process section that provides a detailed description of the instrument and the process. Also, Head Start Bureau staff have developed a special guide, PARTNERSHIP FOR QUALITY: A GRANTEE GUIDE TO PRISM, that is designed to help local program staff prepare for a PRISM review. A copy of the PRISM and the guide are attached to this memorandum. I encourage all of you to carefully read both documents.

If your program is scheduled for a review this year, a Regional Office staff person will discuss this information with the person from your agency designated to assist in planning the review.

The PRISM instrument is comprised of a set of Core Questions, an Entrance Meeting and Grantee Presentation outline, eight interview protocols, two observation guides, and two checklists. Many of these tools were introduced as part of interim editions of the instrument. Some have been modified based on our experience using the individual tools and feedback from local program staff, reviewers and Federal staff.

The Core Questions organize the Head Start Performance Standards and other program regulations into 17 broad categories. Included are nine questions on the program services that all Head Start and Early Head Start grantees must implement. The remaining eight questions cover the management systems that are required to support the delivery of these services. This approach helps review teams to look at programs in a systemic and holistic way.

PRISM reviews begin with an Entrance Meeting and, if grantees choose, a Grantee Presentation. The Entrance Meeting and Grantee Presentation outline is designed to help grantee staff plan these introductory activities for the review team. The Entrance Meeting is a time for grantee staff, review teams, and other interested parties to meet and to describe their functions with the program or as part of the review team. During the Entrance Meeting, staff may deliver a 30-minute presentation to describe: the agency; its organizational structure; and the children, families, and community served by the grantee.

Several group interviews take place early in the PRISM process for review teams to gain an understanding of the grantee's management systems and program services. Interview protocols are included as part of PRISM to guide these discussions between review teams, grantee staff and others involved in the program monitoring process. Reviewers use the following protocols to get "big picture" information about the program:

The Management Team Interview Protocol is used to facilitate a discussion with the grantee management team about its management systems.
The Content Area Experts Interview Protocol, being used for the first time this year, allows reviewers to obtain information from a grantee's content area experts on the planning, integration, and implementation of program services.
The Staff Group Interview Protocol is used to provide reviewers with more detailed information about how services are implemented by the grantee's direct services staff.

Reviewers conduct additional interviews as one source of information to answer the core questions for PRISM. The following interview protocols were designed for that purpose:

The Governing Body Interview Protocol is used by reviewers to obtain information on how the governing body exercises their oversight responsibility and ensures their accountability for the Head Start program.
The Policy Council Interview Protocol contains questions concerning program governance and shared decision-making, and is intended for use with Policy Council members.
The Family Group Interview Protocol helps reviewers to find out from a group of families what their experience has been in Head Start.
The Child Care Partnerships Interview Protocol is designed to help reviewers interview the director or other lead staff members of agencies that have child care partnerships with Head Start and Early Head Start.
Reviewers use the Community Partnerships Interview Protocol with community partners to gain an understanding of the development and implementation of eachpartnership.

Review teams observe a grantee's child development activities, review documents, and conduct follow-up interviews with program staff, as other sources of information to answer the core questions. PRISM includes the following instruments and checklists that reviewers may use to support these activities. Reviewers use:

The Classroom, Family Child Care, or Socialization Experience Observation Instrument to record observations on key early childhood concepts in the settings described in the name. From these observations, reviewers gain information about the grantee's learning environments and on how staff have implemented the curriculum.
The Home Visit Observation Instrument to guide observations when conducting a review of a grantee with a home based program option. Reviewers observe how home visitors support parents in working with their children.
The Health and Safety Checklist to assist them in assuring that health and safety requirements are being met.
The Fiscal Checklist to review the fiscal management of a grantee.

Finally, PRISM will implement a unique way to collect and validate information on a grantee's children and families. With this new practice, known as the Focus and Child andFamily Process, reviewers will use various PRISM instruments to closely examine the actual experiences of a group of Head Start children and their families. Using a holistic, multi-faceted approach, reviewers determine the responsiveness of the grantee's systems and services for this group by looking at the whole child and family.

I have gotten wonderful feedback from many of you expressing great satisfaction with the changes that we have made in program monitoring. Bureau staff will continue to make improvements to PRISM as we learn from our experiences using the instrument and process. We are very proud of the progress that the Head Start community has made over the past several years in implementing the important changes with program monitoring. As always, our goal in monitoring is to encourage programs to strive for excellence.

Helen H. Taylor
Associate Commissioner
Head Start Bureau

Attachments:

PRISM: Program Review Instrument for Systems Monitoring of Head Start and Early Head Start Grantees [This information has been superceded by PRISM: Program Review Instrument for Systems Monitoring of Head Start and Early Head Start Grantees - All Instruments 2002 . You may request a print or electronic copy of the original by sending an e-mail to Lois Winkel at loisw@headstartinfo.org.]

PARTNERSHIP FOR QUALITY: A GRANTEE GUIDE TO PRISM [This information has been superceded by PRISM: Program Review Instrument for Systems Monitoring of Head Start and Early Head Start Grantees - Partnerships for Quality: A Grantee Guide for PRISM 2002 . You may request a print or electronic copy of the original by sending an e-mail to Lois Winkel at loisw@headstartinfo.org.]