Descriptive Data on Region XI Head Start Children and Families: AIAN FACES Fall 2019 Data Tables and Study Design

The purpose of this report is to (1) provide information about the AIAN FACES study, including the background, design, methodology, assessments, and analytic methods; and (2) report detailed descriptive statistics (averages, response ranges, and percentages) in a series of tables on children and their families. The report provides a national picture of the children and families attending Region XI AIAN Head Start in fall 2019.

For children’s characteristics, family backgrounds, and home environments, the tables show:

• Demographic characteristics (for example, age, race/ethnicity, language(s) spoken in the home, who lives in the household)
• Family economic well-being (how the household is doing financially: for example, household income as a percentage of the federal poverty threshold; financial strain; food security; hardships with basic utilities, medical needs, and transportation; and sources of public assistance)
• Parents’ Native language use and how important it is to them that the child learns Native language
• Community cultural activities attended by the child in the past year
• Children’s access to health care providers and medical and dental care
• Parents’ sources of social support

For children’s cognitive and social-emotional skills and physical health and disability status, the tables show:

• Children’s language, literacy, and math skills
• Children’s executive function (self-regulation skills), social skills, problem behaviors, and approaches to learning
• Teacher reports of children’s disability status and type, and Individualized Education Program/Individual Family Service Plan status
• Parent reports of children’s health status
• Children’s height, weight, and body mass index

The tables provide the above information for all Region XI Head Start children, regardless of whether they are American Indian or Alaska Native. The tables also provide information for only Region XI Head Start children who are American Indian or Alaska Native.

To construct a representative sample of Region XI Head Start programs, we selected programs from the 2016-2017 Head Start Program Information Report. The sample included one or two centers per program and two to four classrooms per center. Within each classroom, we randomly selected 13 children for the study. Twenty-two programs, 40 centers, 85 classrooms, and 720 children participated in the study in fall 2019.

The tables provide information from parent surveys, Teacher Child Reports, and direct assessments. The statistics in the tables are weighted estimates of key characteristics of the population of Region XI Head Start children and their families. We apply weights to the data to make sure they accurately represent the family characteristics and children’s cognitive skills, social-emotional skills, and physical health and disability status of all children enrolled in Region XI programs in fall 2019 (and not just those from whom we collected data).

Bernstein, Sara, Myley Dang, Ann Li, Ashley Kopack Klein, Natalie Reid, Elizabeth Blesson, Judy Cannon, Jeff Harrington, Addison Larson, Nikki Aikens, Louisa Tarullo, and Lizabeth Malone (2020). Descriptive Data on Region XI Head Start Children and Families: AIAN FACES Fall 2019 Data Tables and Study Design, OPRE Report 2021-28, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.