Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Evaluating Head Start Program Quality: An Objective Measurement Approach

Hall, Patricia Lyn

Abstract Details

2009, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, Education and Research and Measurement.

Previous research regarding the relationship between program quality and child outcomes has left unanswered questions regarding how Head Start program quality is affecting children’s gains in school readiness following program participation. Variations in program quality have not been found to have a strong association with child outcomes. Issues with traditional measurement development and validation may be impacting the research findings regarding the relationship between program quality and child outcomes.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate measures of Head Start program quality using an objective measurement approach (i.e., Rasch analysis) and to create a holistic measure of Head Start program quality from four individual instruments used to evaluate early childhood program quality.

The unit of analysis for this study was Head Start classrooms. Rasch analysis of the four classroom quality instruments revealed various issues with the functioning of the instruments including a failure to adequately distinguish classrooms on the construct, problems with the use of the rating scale, misfitting items and classrooms and poor targeting of classrooms, especially at the low end of the measurement scale. Poor separation and targeting of classrooms on these instruments may be a possible explanation for the failure to find a relationship between classroom quality and children’s gains in school readiness. This study's attempt to develop a holistic measure of program quality using the four individual instruments resulted in an instrument with greater ability to distinguish classrooms, with a high level of reliability. However, the combined measure of classroom quality was found to still have problems with adequate targeting of classrooms due to the individual instruments from which it was constructed. Future research should attempt to identify higher-level indicators of classroom quality to improve the differentiation and targeting of Head Start classrooms in regards to quality.

Gregory Stone, PhD (Advisor)
Svetlana Beltyukova, PhD (Committee Member)
Christine M. Fox, PhD (Committee Member)
Ruslan Slutsky, PhD (Committee Member)
140 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Hall, P. L. (2009). Evaluating Head Start Program Quality: An Objective Measurement Approach [Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1250350543

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hall, Patricia. Evaluating Head Start Program Quality: An Objective Measurement Approach. 2009. University of Toledo, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1250350543.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hall, Patricia. "Evaluating Head Start Program Quality: An Objective Measurement Approach." Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1250350543

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)