Children and Family Services Capital Area Head Start Annual Accomplishments 2010–2011

We have a vision of a world where all children are safe, healthy and loved, with active opportunities for learning. By supporting families to gain the skills and confidence they need to achieve their goals, we are empowering them with a sense of hope for the future.

This has been a very successful year for Capital Area Head Start. We maintained an average enrollment of 100% each month, serving a total of 1,237 children and families (977 children in Head Start, 260 in Early Head Start). We served 97% of children eligible for the program. Of the children who were enrolled in CAHS, 98% of children in Head Start and 100% of children in Early Head Start received medical exams and 99% of children in Head Start and 100% of children in Early Head Start received dental exams, an important part of every child's health and well-being. In the Secretary's triennial federal monitoring review in 2010, no areas of noncompliance were found. In addition, there were no findings or material weaknesses as a result of the last financial audit on June 30, 2011.

Parent Involvement

We believe that parents are the first and foremost teachers of their children, and we encourage family participation in CAHS activities. We work as partners with parents to help their children progress. All of our centers and home-based locations held at least three parent meetings, including workshops on nutrition, transitioning to school, family night, budgeting and parenting. We also held orientations to the program. We now have a third PI Coordinator, who speaks Spanish, which has helped us form greater connections with our Spanish-speaking families and has enhanced our parent training opportunities.

Across the program, we held trainings and meeting for Connect with H.I.M. (Head Start Involves Men). Connect with H.I.M. encourages men to become involved in CAHS, supporting them to build positive, nurturing relationships with their children. Additionally, KISS (Keep It Simple Sisters) has continued to draw moms into special activities geared toward the interests of women in our program.

The Parents as Staff Succeed (PASS) initiative, established as a support venue for Head Start parents who transition into the role of staff, continued for a second year. As many as 15 different individuals attended the three sessions held throughout the year, which focused on personal professional expectations, goal setting and taking action. Participants expressed appreciation for the PASS opportunity and were highly motivated to continue for a third year. PASS is being offered during the 2011-2012 program year, with an emphasis on personal wellness.

Kindergarten Preparation

One of our continuing goals is to prepare children for kindergarten, providing comprehensive services and activities to support them to grow educationally, emotionally, socially and physically. Our classrooms use the High/Scope curriculum, which is based on key developmental indicators that align with the Pennsylvania Early Learning Standards, to ensure a quality preschool experience. These developmental indicators focus on:

• Approaches to learning
• Language, literacy and communication
• Social and emotional development
• Physical development, health and well-being
• Arts and sciences

Our classrooms have implemented several activities designed to enhance children's literacy:

• Author's chair
• Journal writing
• Interactive read alouds
• Shared reading
• Message boards
• Independent reading

We use the PATHS (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies) curriculum to assist children to learn important social and emotional skills for success in school. Children learn feelings identification, empathy, cooperative play, fair play skills and problem solving.

To support and assist children and families to successfully transition to kindergarten, teachers carefully plan activities to introduce the school experience, including:

• Visiting kindergarten classrooms
• Meeting kindergarten staff
• Viewing the Kindergarten Here I Come video
• Sharing photos and/or pen pal letters with kindergarten classrooms
• Reading books about going to kindergarten
• Creating “school” dramatic play areas

Children who are transitioning to kindergarten are given a Pennsylvania Department of Education Kindergarten Here I Come calendar. To prepare parents for their children going to kindergarten, we share information about successfully transitioning from CAHS programs to kindergarten. We hold parent meeting discussions and provide parents with informational flyers on kindergarten registration and orientation, as well as handouts and newsletters. In addition, CAHS staff attended community engagement meetings and training that addressed communication, collaboration, and supporting families through the transition process.

Grants and Partnerships

For the past several years, we have received PNC Grow Up Great grants, which have provided funding for exciting exploratory materials in classrooms, materials for use in children's homes, ongoing staff development and volunteerism. The professional development, parent support and materials for classrooms have had a very positive, measurable effect on child outcomes in science. During the 2010-2011 program year, we continued our innovative partnership with the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts to provide in-depth staff development opportunities and resources to enhance science programming for children and families. By the end of the 2010-2011 program year, all teachers and home visitors in all programs received professional development in science and math. Our child outcomes for 2010-2011 showed our preschool children scoring seven percentage points higher in science than the state average!

Other Notable Accomplishments

We celebrated many notable accomplishments both inside and outside the classroom.

• The Hershey Medical Center Pediatric Residency program, which initially began in August 2009, continues its advocacy rotation. A pediatric resident spends time with CAHS staff once a month.
• The 2009 Early Head Start Expansion (EHS) grant went into its second year. This funding allowed us to increase our enrollment capacity in our current Early Head Start program and allowed EHS to expand into Cumberland County.
• The 2009 Head Start Expansion grant went into its second year. This expansion focuses on dual language learners, and we added several new activities to enhance programming. A workgroup continues to meet to evaluate the services provided to children and families with limited English language proficiency.
• The instructional coaches participated in a yearlong formative program evaluation collecting data in an effort to refine and develop an effective coaching model to best support teaching staff. Using the CLASS (Classroom Scoring Assessment System), a standardized tool designed to evaluate teacher/child interaction, the program evaluation data demonstrated that classrooms receiving coaching support improved their overall CLASS scores.
• The instructional coaches developed and implemented a successful curriculum series titled, “Digging Deeper,” to help teachers improve instruction and support child outcomes.
• Recent fifth grad standardized test results for the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) show that participation in the Harrisburg Preschool Program (HPP) significantly impacts children’s literacy and math skills. Third-grade children who had participated in HPP, a collaborative program developed and operated by the Harrisburg School District and CAHS, scored significantly higher on PSSA tests than their peers who had not participated in HPP.
  • 42% of HPP students were advanced or proficient in mathematics while only 24% of non-attendees were advanced or proficient.
  • 46% of HPP students were advanced or proficient in reading achievement while only 39% of non-attendees were advanced or proficient. 
• Research results for Pre-K Counts at Harrisburg School District Early Childhood Program were released. Outcome highlights from “An Independent Authentic Program Evaluation Research Intitiative (2005-2009)” include:
  • High risk preschool children succeeded by gaining critical early learning competencies
  • Improved program quality promoted children’s early school success
  • Children exceeded the local and national norms to achieve success in kindergarten transition
  • Innovative partnerships between schools and communities nurtured child and program success
• Education outcomes: The review of the CAHS child outcomes data shows growth for all children in all domains across all program options. Work Sampling Assessment guidelines indicate that 80% of children should be receiving “in process” or “proficient” ratings by the end of the school year in all indicators when the assessment is used correctly. The PA Office of Child Development and Early Learning indicates that across Pennsylvania, program averages show that 97% of Pennsylvania’s children in Head Start Supplemental Assistance Programs (HSSAP) and 99% of children enrolled in PA Pre-K Counts (PKC) scored in the “in process” or “proficient” categories.
  • Three- and four-year-old children enrolled in all CAHS options compared favorably with that percentage in all domains. All seven domains averaged over 97% of all children receiving an “in process” or “proficient” rating, with all seven ratings of four-year-olds averaging over 99%.
• The Pre-K Counts grant held by the Harrisburg School District was successfully transitioned to Capital Area Head Start. This included the successful negotiation of a new PKC contract with the Office of Child Development and Early Learning. The grant will continue to fund quality pre-kindergarten education for 368 three- and four-year-olds. In 2011-2012, the program will be operated solely by CAHS.

Financial Information

We receive both public and private funds to continue our mission. Three quarters of our budget is spent on salaries and benefits, and the remaining funding is dedicated to service operations, including parent activities, classroom supplies and professional development.

Public and Private Funds Received 2010-2011

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Proposed Budget for 2011–2012 Fiscal Year

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Challenges

Because of state, federal and local budget cuts, CAHS is facing some challenges, as are most other pre-kindergarten and human service programs. Capital Area Head Start and Keystone Children & Family Services are actively participating in ongoing strategic planning to ensure that we continue to address the external and internal challenges, as well as maintain strong service performance and financial positions.

Capital Area Head Start

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