Head Start, two-generation ESL services, and parent engagement☆
Introduction
Nearly 18 million children under the age of 18 in the United States have at least one immigrant parent, and half of foreign-born adults have limited English proficiency. Latino families are disproportionately represented among this group: 62% of adults with limited English proficiency speak Spanish as their primary language. Higher levels of adult English language literacy are associated with increased levels of educational attainment, rates of employment, and wages (Zong & Batalova, 2015). Parents’ English language proficiency also plays a critical role in fostering children’s development and academic achievement (Karoly & Gonzalez, 2011; Sibley & Dearing, 2014).
Over half of immigrant children live in low-income households (Fortuny, Hernandez, & Chaudry, 2010). Head Start, the largest federally-funded early childhood education program for low-income children, serves close to a quarter of a million Dual Language Learner children (DLL), 80% of whom speak Spanish as their primary language (almost one-fourth of all Head Start children; Moiduddin, Aikens, Tarullo, West, & Zue, 2012; Office of Head Start, 2016). At the same time, only 5% of Head Start parents typically receive English as a Second Language (ESL) services (Office of Head Start, 2016). Head Start’s shortage of bilingual teachers and limited availability of translated materials make communication a challenge among immigrant parents with low levels of English proficiency and Head Start teachers and staff (National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance, 2008; Park & McHugh, 2014). A lack of English language skills can also prevent immigrant parents from accessing key social services (e.g., childcare vouchers, nutritional programs, etc.) that support children’s development (Park & McHugh, 2014; Waterman, 2009; Yoshikawa, 2011). Fostering home language and literacy is also a key tenet of Head Start’s approach to serving dual language learners (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services & U.S. Department of Education, 2016).
In the current study, we examine the implementation of an ESL program that uses an innovative two-generation approach to serve a largely Latino immigrant population of parents with young children. The program offers parents the opportunity to enroll in ESL classes while their children are participating in Head Start services. It also includes supportive elements that are designed to address common social barriers low-income parents face, including scheduling difficulties, social and cultural isolation, and limited financial resources. Key to a two-generation approach is the recruitment of parents from programs like Head Start in which children are participating in high-quality early childhood education programming, and parents are part of a community of support, including teachers, family advocates, and other low-income parents of young children (Sabol et al., 2015; Sommer et al., 2012). Importantly, the program employs an ESL curriculum that is contextualized to child development and children’s Head Start learning outcomes.
We examine parents’ progress in and perceptions of an ESL program operated by Community Action Project of Tulsa County (CAP Tulsa), an anti-poverty agency and the local Head Start and Early Head Start administrator. CAP Tulsa’s ESL program offers a package of financial and other supportive services to parents of children enrolled in CAP Tulsa’s Head Start centers: (a) tuition-free ESL classes for small groups of Head Start parents offered on a daily basis, (b) weekly meetings with a coach and classroom peers designed to improve social connection and practice English language skills, and (c) financial supports, including attendance incentives and childcare vouchers to encourage enrollment and retention. The goal of this study is to understand parents’ experiences of this novel program from two perspectives: quantitative indicators of parents’ progress (i.e., program completion, persistence, attendance, and English language advancement) and take-up of the program’s key supportive elements, and qualitative perceptions of parents and staff as to whether the program supports parents’ focus on their children’s development and schooling.
Fig. 1 presents our change model for two-generation ESL programs. These programs involve high-quality classrooms and family support services for children based in early childhood centers and an ESL program for parents, which includes a family-centered ESL curriculum and other supportive elements. We expect the following intermediate benefits to families through parent ESL program participation: higher parent attendance and persistence, improved parent English-language skills, and increased parent engagement in children’s schooling. We hypothesize that these benefits will lead to positive child development in the long-term such as school readiness and improved academic achievement, although such indicators are beyond the scope of this study.
Section snippets
Past evidence on ESL services
Starting in the 1970s when the percentage of immigrants in the United States began to rise steadily, ESL instruction became an official component of adult education (part of an amendment to the Adult Education Act of 1966; Center for Applied Linguistics, 2010; Hirschman, 2005; Yong, 2008). Many community-based ESL programs (e.g., programs located in community colleges, K-12 school districts, and community-based organizations) are not well designed for short-term, intensive training because they
Procedure
Our study drew on data from the CAP Tulsa Family Advancement Study, an ongoing, experimental evaluation of CAP Tulsa’s General Equivalency Diploma (GED), certified nursing assistant (CNA), and ESL programs. In this study, we focused on CAP Tulsa’s ESL program only. CAP Tulsa also separately offers CareerAdvance®, a college-level career-training program in the healthcare field for parents of children enrolled in Head Start. Parents, including those enrolled in the ESL program, are not eligible
Parents’ progress
Given the additional supportive elements, we expected that CAP Tulsa’s two-generation ESL program would have higher completion rates than single-generation ESL programs. We found that 29 out of 35 parents (83%) completed semester 1 (i.e., completers). The remaining six parents left at some point throughout semester 1 (i.e., leavers). Of those who completed semester 1, 79% went on to enroll in semester 2 (i.e., persisters; 23/29). Six parents elected to leave after completing semester 1, but
Discussion
This mixed method study examined the progress and perspectives of low-income parents in one of the only two-generation interventions in the country that recruits parents of children enrolled in Head Start services and offers an ESL curriculum grounded in children’s development and Head Start activities. Among enrollees in each semester, parents had high levels of completion and class attendance. However, only about half of the parents completed both semesters. Parents who completed semester 1
Limitations
There are several limitations of this study. First, this is a descriptive study on parents’ progress and parent and staff perspectives in CAP Tulsa’s two-generation ESL program. Future studies will examine causal effects on a broad range of parent and child outcomes, with comparisons to a control group of parents who were not enrolled in the program. Child outcomes which were not measured by the present study, will be especially important for understanding whether the program benefits that
Conclusion
Despite these limitations, CAP Tulsa’s early success in supporting parents’ progress in a two-generation ESL program are encouraging, especially improvements in English language skill levels that show higher rates than national averages. Moreover, our results suggest that a two-generation ESL program has the potential to support parents’ motivation to learn English to promote their children’s educational success as well as their own, increase parent engagement in shared learning activities with
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This research was supported by the Administration for Children & Families Office of Planning Research and Evaluation (Award 90YR0073-01-00).