Head Start program leadership, staff, and families are committed to using data to improve family engagement practices on a continuous basis. Leaders and managers build support and capacity for this work among staff, families, and community partners. Together, they can work on selecting indicators of PFCE progress, planning for continuous improvement, and interpreting data, including community strengths and needs assessments.
Program leaders seek out opportunities to use their program data to inform local and state planning and policy decisions. They monitor their own progress toward PFCE outcomes and periodically refine plans and action steps.
Key Resources
- Using the Head Start Parent, Family, and Community Engagement Framework in Your Program: Markers of Progress.
- Implementing the PFCE Framework
- Learning in Partnership: Using Data and Reflective Practice in Programs
- Tracking Progress Database: Standardized Measures to Assess Family Engagement Efforts and Effects
- Measuring What Matters: Using Data to Support Family Progress
- Data in Head Start Programs
Research
- Bryk A.S., Gomez L. M., Grunow A. (2010), Getting Ideas Into Action: Building Networked Improvement Communities in Education
- A Resource Guide for Head Start Programs: Moving Beyond a Culture of Compliance to a Culture of Continuous Improvement [PDF, 1.8MB]
- Understanding Data Use for Continuous Quality Improvement in Head Start
- Harvard Family Research Project (2002) Evaluation for Continuous Improvement. The Evaluation Exchange, 8(2), 1-20
- Transforming Schools Through Family, School, and Community Engagement Webinar
Regulations
- Policy council and policy committee, 45 CFR § 1301.3 (c), (c)(2)
- Parent committees, 45 CFR § 1301.4 (b), (b)(2)
- Training, 45 CFR § 1301.5
- Determining community strengths, needs, and resources, 45 CFR § 1302.11 (b), (b)(1), (b)(1)(i), (b)(1)(i)(A)-(C), (b)(1)(ii)-(vi), (b)(2)
- Determining, verifying, and documenting eligibility, 45 CFR § 1302.12 (a), (a)(1), (a)(1)(iii),(vii), (d), (d)(2), (d)(2)(vii), (e), (e)(3), (g), (g)(1), (h)-(i), (k), (m), (m)(1), (m)(1)(i)-(iii), (m)(2)-(4)
- Attendance, 45 CFR § 1302.16 (a), (a)(1)-(2), (a)(2)(i)-(iv), (a)(3), (b)
- Parent and family engagement in education and child development services, 45 CFR § 1302.34 (b), (b)(4)-(6)
- Child health status and care, 45 CFR § 1302.42 (c), (c)(1)-(3), (d), (d)(1)-(2)
- Child mental health and social and emotional well-being, 45 CFR § 1302.45 (a), (a)(2), (b), (b)(2)-(3)
- Family support services for health, nutrition, and mental health, 45 CFR § 1302.46 (b), (b)(2), (b)(2)(ii)-(iii)
- Family engagement, 45 CFR § 1302.50 (a)-(b), (b)(3),(6)
- Family partnership services, 45 CFR § 1302.52 (a)-(c), (c)(1)-(4), (d)
- Community partnerships and coordination with other early childhood and education programs, 45 CFR § 1302.53 (a), (a)(1), (b)
- Additional services for children, 45 CFR § 1302.61 (b)-(c), (c)(1), (c)(1)(i)-(iv), (c)(2), (c)(2)(i)-(ii)
- Additional services for parents, 45 CFR § 1302.62 (b), (b)(3)
- Coordination and collaboration with the local agency responsible for implementing IDEA, 45 CFR § 1302.63 (b)-(c), (c)(1)-(2)
- Transitions from Early Head Start, 45 CFR § 1302.70 (b), (b)(1), (c), (d)
- Transitions from Head Start to kindergarten, 45 CFR § 1302.71 (a)-(b), (b)(2), (b)(2)(i), (iv), (c), (c)(1)-(2), (c)(2)(i)-(iii)
- Transitions between programs, 45 CFR § 1302.72 (a)-(c)
- Enrolled pregnant women, 45 CFR § 1302.80 (a)
- Training and professional development, 45 CFR § 1302.92 (a)-(b), (b)(3), (5), (c), (c)(1)-(4), (c)(4)(i)-(iv), (d)
- Purpose, 45 CFR § 1302.100
- Management system, 45 CFR § 1302.101 (a), (a)(1)-(4), (b), (b)(1)-(2), (b)(2)(i)-(iii), (b)(3)-(4)
- Achieving program goals, 45 CFR § 1302.102 (a), (a)(1)-(4), (b), (b)(1), (b)(1)(i)-(iv), (b)(2), (b)(2)(i)-(iii), (c), (c)(1)-(2), (c)(2)(i)-(v), (d), (d)(1), (d)(1)(i)-(ii), (d)(1)(ii)(A)-(D), (d)(2)-(3)
- Implementation of program performance standards, 45 CFR § 1302.103 (a)-(b)
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Last Updated: March 11, 2025