East Coast Migrant Head Start Project (ECMHSP), like every other Head
Start program in this country, is actively engaged in meeting the challenge
of implementing the legislative changes concerning Head Start program
and child outcomes. These include, "establishing additional results-based
educational performance standards and performance measures, and adapting
these standards and measures for use by programs in their self-assessments..."
(ACYF-IM-HS-00-18, 8/10/00).
This challenge offers us an opportunity to take a step back and look
at what we already are doing to measure child outcomes, and what still
needs to be done. It entails reviewing our current screening and assessment
system, particularly our assessment tool and process. For many years,
ECMHSP centers have used the Denver II to screen all children, and the
Early Learning Accomplishment Profile (E-LAP: ages birth to 3 years) and
Learning Accomplishment Profile (LAP: ages 3 to 6 years) for ongoing assessment
and to track children's progress across a broad range of skills. We are
asking ourselves a specific question: Does the E-LAP/LAP provide adequate
child outcome information? If not, what other assessment tool does?
This, of course, raises other questions: What criteria will we use to
evaluate different assessment tools? How would a change of assessment
affect our continuity system? What are the pros and cons of changing our
assessment system? If we change our assessment tool, how will that impact
programs that integrate the E-LAP/LAP into their curriculum framework?
ECMHSP has established a Child Assessment Committee composed of ECMHSP,
delegate agency, and center staff to address these and other issues and
questions. This article provides background information about ECMHSP,
describes work the committee has accomplished, and explains the questions
and issues under discussion.
Who We Are
ECMHSP was established in 1974 to provide continuity of Head Start services
to the children of migrant farm workers and their families along the East
Coast of the United States. It has evolved over the years from a small,
two-center program in Florida, to a multi-state, multi-agency, multi-center
operation. Currently, ECMHSP contracts with 20 delegate agencies in 12
states (AL, DE, FL, GA, ME, MD, NC, NJ, NY, PA, SC, and VA). There are
a total of 88 centers serving over 8,000 infants, toddlers, and preschoolers
in full-day programs.
The majority of ECMHSP children and families are Spanish-speaking families
from Mexico, Texas, and Puerto Rico. ECMHSP programs also serve children
and families from Haiti, Guatemala, Canada (Mixtec Indians who cross the
Canadian border into Maine and work in the blueberry barrens), and the
United States.
Programs seek staff members who speak the children's languages. Parents
often are hired as teacher's aides for this reason. Many of the families
live in Florida from October through May and travel up-stream after the
agricultural season is over to work in northern states. Centers open and
close with the comings and goings of migrant families, rather than operating
on a school year schedule. Thus, ECMHSP programs share children as their
families move from place to place to do agricultural work. Many of the
children come into Head Start as infants and stay within the ECMHSP system
until they transition into kindergarten.
What We Do: Screening and Assessment
Within this context, ECMHSP has developed and implemented a screening/assessment
system to provide–
- Important information about children's competencies and skill development;
- Opportunities for family involvement and input;
- Information for use by classroom teachers in individualizing learning
activities and creating classroom lesson plans; and
- A communication and continuity link between all the centers in the
ECMHSP system (for E-LAP/LAP).
All children are screened within the first two weeks of enrollment using
the Denver II instrument. The first E-LAP/LAP assessment is completed
in the next month. The results, along with family input, are used to create
individual Child Activity Plans (CAPs) for infants, toddlers, or preschoolers.
The CAP identifies learning objectives and related classroom activities
in the following areas of development (similar to the Domains in the Head
Start Outcomes Framework): language, cognitive, gross motor, fine motor,
pre-writing (only in the LAP), social-emotional, and self-help. Information
from the CAPs is used to develop lesson plans for toddler and preschool
classrooms. E-LAPs/LAPs are updated monthly, as are the children's CAPs.
Programs that are open for eight weeks or less only use Denver II screenings.
ECMHSP uses the E-LAP/LAP as a key part of its communication and continuity
system. Classroom teachers assess each child each month and record the
information on two identical E-LAP/LAP forms. One copy is provided to
families when they inform the center they are leaving; the other goes
in the child's records folder, which contains education, health, and family
information.
Children's records are sent back to the ECMHSP main office when they
leave a center. When families come to the next ECMHSP center, they give
their child's E-LAP/LAP form to the classroom teachers. The center also
requests the child's records from the ECMHSP main office. This information
helps teachers at the new center, as they continue the assessment process
and monthly updates. Thus, the E-LAP/LAP form is a communication tool
that allows centers to provide continuity of education services as children
move.
ECMHSP chose to use the Denver II screening a number of years ago because
it met important criteria. It is useful because–
- Hispanic children are included in the re-standardization;
- It is a recognized screening tool;
- There are English and Spanish versions;
- Training resources are locally available to centers;
- It covers children with ages ranging from birth to six years; and
- It can be administered by paraprofessionals.
ECMHSP chose to use the E-LAP/LAP for ongoing child assessment for many
of the same reasons. There are English and Spanish versions, it can be
administered by paraprofessionals, it includes children with ages ranging
from birth to six years, and it is a recognized assessment tool. Both
the Denver II and E-LAP/LAP are relatively easy to administer once staff
understand the purpose of the tools, the information they provide, and
the mechanics of administration.
With such a long-standing and integrated systemwide screening and assessment
process in place, reviewing our assessment tool/process to consider change
could be a daunting task! However, ECMHSP looks at it as a chance to strengthen
our assessment system, reinforce the connections between assessment and
curriculum, and measure more accurately children's progress towards established
goals and outcomes.
Where We Are
The ECMHSP Child Assessment team has established a course of action.
They are gathering information on commercial assessment tools, reviewing
Head Start materials on child outcomes, program performance measures and
program self-assessment, and establishing criteria and indicators for
evaluating assessment tools.
The last activity has entailed quite a bit of discussion to flesh out
the indicators for each criterion. So far, our global criteria include
staff and training, cost, age-range, play-based, correlation with curriculum,
and correlation with the Head Start child outcomes.
One of the criteria–the need to be culturally and linguistically appropriate–requires
thoughtful consideration. We ask ourselves, "What do we mean by culturally
and linguistically appropriate? How do we determine whether or not an
assessment tool is culturally and linguistically appropriate?"
Since all assessment tools and assessment developers are influenced by
culture, no assessment is entirely free of bias. Assessment tools measure
what is thought to be important to the developer and to the society at
large. For example, mainstream American society values competencies in
reading and writing. Thus many assessments emphasize related cognitive
and fine motor skills. Other cultures value oral traditions and interpersonal
relationship skills. Because our programs serve children from diverse
cultural and linguistic backgrounds, we have developed the following indicators
and questions. These preliminary indicators may be refined as we apply
them–
- Pilot/standardization studies. Was the assessment tool piloted
with children similar to our population of children?
- Availability of tool in other languages. Is the tool available
in Spanish? Other languages? If yes, is it a direct translation from
the English, or is it an adapted translation (i.e., items assess information
similar to the English version, but use words, pictures, and concepts
that are culturally familiar and relevant to Latino or other cultures)?
- Protocol for item administration and interpretation of responses.
Do assessors have flexibility in administering items? If a child gives
a correct answer, but in his/her home language, is that response acceptable?
What kind of latitude do assessors have in interpreting children's responses?
Do assessors have to use a prescribed kit of assessment materials, or
can they use materials familiar to the children?
Where We Are Going
The Child Assessment Team is ready to begin the work of evaluating selected
assessment tools using our criteria and indicators. Since our programs
already use the LAP, we will begin with that tool. This will also entail
correlating the LAP with The Creative Curriculum used by many migrant
programs.
Once the committee has evaluated all the assessment tools, ECMHSP senior
management staff will review the information and make an informed decision.
They will take into account the impact of any change on our established
continuity system, staff training issues, the integration of assessment
and curriculum, and measurement of child outcomes as mandated by Head
Start.
This is an exciting time for ECMHSP. Our system review undoubtedly will
have a profound effect on the educational services we provide. While we
already know a great deal about children's developmental and educational
status, this work will help us know better where we want our children
to go and how to tell when they get there. This is a golden opportunity
to create and deliver an even stronger, sounder educational experience
for young children–one that will prepare them to become lifelong, successful
learners.
Jan Greenberg is the Training and Development Associate at ECMHSP.
T: 703-243-7522; E: greenberg@ecmhsp.org.
The following ECMHSP staff contributed to the article: Leila Arjona,
Clara Cappiello, Grace Horsman, and Kim Stacy.
