Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Study (MSHS)

Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) Study

The MSHS Study is a nationally representative study commissioned by the U.S. Office of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families that will describe the characteristics and experiences of the children and families who enroll in MSHS and the practices and services of the MSHS programs that serve them. The MSHS Study draws heavily on the Design for MSHS Survey Report (2011) and is informed by the current context of key policy and programmatic issues and broader issues impacting the lives of migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their families.

The MSHS Study has two components: a Program/Center component and a Classroom, Family, Child component that are based on distinct samples. The first component is off-site and consists of mailed surveys that will be sent to the universe of MSHS program directors and a representative subset of center directors to provide information on program and center operations. The second component consists of onsite data collection - including classroom observations, surveys with teachers and assistant teachers, parent interviews, teacher and parent child reports, and direct child assessments - with a nationally-representative sample of centers, classrooms, families and children.

Once data are collected, the study will address a set of research questions that can be summarized into three broad categories: (1) What are the characteristics of MSHS programs, families, and children? (2) What services do MSHS programs provide, what instructional and language practices are used, and what is the quality of MSHS classrooms? and (3) What are the associations between MSHS characteristics and child/family well-being?

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Migrant and Seasonal Head Start

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 1404

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • District of Columbia
    • Washington, District of Columbia, United States, 20201
      • Abt Associates, Inc.

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: ADULT; OLDER_ADULT; CHILD
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

The study population includes children birth to five years who attend Migrant Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) programs, along with their parents and teachers, center directors, and program directors.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• infants, toddlers, and preschoolers in participating Migrant and Seasonal Head Start centers/classrooms across the U.S. and their teachers and parents. Also includes center directors and program directors.

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

1

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
MSHS children and families; Cohort includes: children (1272); parents (1272); teachers (159); teaching assistants (159); program and center directors (253)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Language Literacy	Indicators of language literacy will be assessed during week-long site visits using Letter-Word Identification & "Identificación de letras y palabras" in the Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey.	1 year
Emergent Literacy	Indicators of emergent literacy will be assessed during week-long site visits using the Spanish Version (or English version for children who are not Spanish speakers) of the PLS-5 Auditory Comprehension subscale.	1 year
Emotional Skills	Indicators of emotional skills will be assessed during week-long site visits using the Cognitive/ Social and Emotional/Regulations Scales from the Leiter-Third Edition Examiner Rating Scales.	1 year
Classroom Quality	Classroom quality will be assessed during the week-long site visits using the Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation (ELLCO) Tool and the Classroom Assessment Scoring System™ (CLASS™).	1 year

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Abt Associates
• Collaborators: Westat; The Catholic University of America
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Sandra Barrueco, Ph.D., The Catholic Univeristy of America; Principal Investigator: Michael L Lopez, Ph.D., Abt Associates; Study Director: Linda Caswell, Ed.D., Abt Associates

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• O'Brien RW, Barrueco S, Lopez ML, D'Elio ML. Design for Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Survey. Washington, D.C.: Administration for Children and Families, 2011.

Helpful Links

• Migrant and Seasonal Health Start Study Webpage

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): March 4, 2017
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): April 30, 2018
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): April 30, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 12, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 12, 2017
• First Posted (ACTUAL): April 17, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): January 11, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 9, 2019
• Last Verified: April 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: early childhood education; migrant and seasonal head start; head start
• Other Study ID Numbers: MSHS

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: The MSHS Study team will prepare restricted use datasets and documentation, to be archived with a data storage site such as the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan, so that future researchers may use the MSHS Study data to replicate findings and explore new areas of inquiry.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No