The Quality Counts Head Start Quality Research Center

Project Overview

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

The overall goal of the Quality Counts Head Start Quality Research Center (QRC) is to evaluate and refine the implementation of the Individualized Learning Intervention, a specific intervention approach that leads to enhanced Head Start program quality, which in turn promotes children's school readiness. The QRC will conduct the evaluation, refinement, and subsequent replication of this intervention with four Head Start partners.

The Individualized Learning Intervention includes self-directed learning experiences for teachers, collaborative support of Head Start teachers and administrators through a formal mentoring process, and a focus on developmental assessments and their use for planning individualized learning experiences for children. The intervention also helps Head Start programs build local outcomes-based evaluation systems. The QRC research agenda focuses on the impact that self-directed and collaborative learning experiences have on teachers' abilities to use developmental assessments to individualize teaching and learning for Head Start children.

The research design includes 16 treatment and 16 comparison classrooms each year of the project. Each year, the treatment group of classrooms will include eight mentor and eight protégé teachers. The comparison group of classrooms will include teachers who have also volunteered to be mentors and protégés but were not randomly assigned to get the treatment. These teachers will be given the treatment the following year. The research effort includes child outcome measures, teacher questionnaires, parent questionnaires, and classroom observation measures. Results of the research will be disseminated through professional conferences, journal articles, and product development efforts for practitioner-oriented audiences.

The Principal Investigator for the Quality Counts Head Start Quality Research Center is Martha Abbott-Shim, Ph.D. of Quality Counts, Inc., and the Co-Principal Investigator is Richard Lambert, Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The project is funded by the Head Start Bureau, Agency for Children, Youth, and Families, Department of Health and Human Services for five years, 2001-2006, for a total of 1.25 million dollars.