Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Study, United States, 2017-2018 (ICPSR 37348)
Version Date: May 17, 2023 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
United States Department of Health and Human Services. Administration for Children and Families. Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37348.v3
Version V3 (see more versions)
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Summary View help for Summary
In 2015, the Administration for Children and Families funded a new study - the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Study (MSHS Study) - to focus on MSHS programs and the families they serve. The MSHS Study was designed to closely match the characteristics of the whole population of MSHS programs, centers, families, and children across the United States (a "nationally representative study"). Since the last nationally representative study of MSHS was conducted almost 20 years ago, this study provided an update on MSHS programs and centers, as well as the migrant and seasonal farmworker families they serve.
The MSHS Study included data from programs and centers (collected from surveys of program and center directors), classrooms (collected through classroom observations and from surveys of teachers and assistant teachers), families (collected from interviews with parents), and children (collected from direct assessments, assessor ratings, and parent and teacher ratings of children). Although the study gathered a range of program, practice, and family information, a central theme of the data collection focused on language practice and the language skills and abilities of the children served. The study examined the following research questions:
- What are the characteristics of MSHS programs, centers, staff, families, and children?
- What services does MSHS provide, and what are the instructional practices and general classroom quality of MSHS classrooms?
- What are the associations between MSHS characteristics and child/family well-being?
The MSHS Study methodology, sample, and measures were all developed (or selected) in collaboration with MSHS stakeholders and experts in MSHS programs and early childhood research. The study was conducted by Abt Associates and its partners - the Catholic University of America and Westat - under contract to the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
This collection is organized into 18 data parts:
- 4 files with data from MSHS staff surveys, including surveys with program directors (DS2), center directors (DS4), teachers (DS7), and assistant teachers (DS8). All staff surveys collected information on the respondent's background and experience and then focused on questions relevant to each respondent. For example, the Program Director Survey collected information on issues such as enrollment, program policies, and approaches to hiring, communication, and supervision. The Center Director Survey focused on characteristics of the center, such as staffing, enrollment, family engagement, and instructional practices. The Teacher and Assistant Teacher Surveys gathered information on topics at the classroom level, such as classroom composition and language(s) of instruction, and also included the 12-item version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale.
- 1 file with data from classroom observations (DS6), including items from the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) Pre-K, Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation-Dual Language Learners (ELLCO-DLL), and the MSHS Cultural Items and Language Use (CILU) Checklist.
- 5 direct child assessments, including height and weight measurements (DS10), the Leiter-3 Examiner Rating Scale (DS11), the Preschool Language Scales Fifth Edition (PLS-5) - English (DS12), the PLS-5 - Bilingual (DS13), and the Woodcock Mu?oz Language Survey (DS14).
- 1 file with data from the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (DS15) completed by teachers for infants and young children to assess children's nonverbal and verbal communication skills.
- 1 file for Teacher Report of Child (DS16), including data from children's language dominance and proficiency, questions about delays and disabilities, the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI-English)/Inventario del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas (IDHC-Spanish), Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS)-Birth Cohort questions on counting in English and Spanish, and ECLS-Kindergarten Approaches to Learning.
- 1 file for Parent Report of Child (DS17), including data from the MacArthur-Bates CDI-English/IDHC-Spanish, Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment, and the ECLS-B Socioemotional Scale.
- 1 file with data from the Parent Interview (DS18) that focused on characteristics of the household and focal child. The interview also included items from the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale and the Migrant Farmworker Stress Inventory.
- 4 survey control files, which include the disposition code for each sampled program (DS1), center (DS3), classroom (DS5), and child/parent (DS9), as well as the base sampling weights and some additional sample information.
Various demographic information, such as age, sex, marital status, race, and ethnicity, is also included in the data.
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Funding View help for Funding
Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Restrictions View help for Restrictions
Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reason for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
The MSHS staff surveys (DS2, DS4, DS7, DS8) and parent interview (DS18) have questions that allowed respondents to select from a set of pre-defined response categories or to select "other," and then specify a text response when their answer did not fit into any of the pre-defined response categories. The open-ended responses were excluded from the MSHS Study main data files to protect the confidentiality of respondents and prevent them from being identified. However, the open-ended responses can provide additional information about MSHS programs and families; therefore, they are included in the collection as separate qualitative data files. These supplemental qualitative data files are in Excel format and include responses in both English and Spanish. To prevent identification of the programs, centers, and families, the data in these files cannot be linked to a specific respondent or to the other MSHS Study data files. Please refer to the MSHS Supplemental User's Guide and the ICPSR README Files for additional information.
The Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Study research staff includes:
- Project Director: Linda Caswell
- Deputy Project Director: Erin Bumgarner
- Director of Analysis: Anne Wolf
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
The study team designed the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) Study to address 3 broad categories of research questions: (1) program, center, family, and child characteristics; (2) MSHS services, instructional practices, and quality; and (3) associations between MSHS characteristics and child/family well-being. The study's research questions for these categories included:
Characteristics of MSHS Programs, Centers, Families, and Children
- What are the operational characteristics of MSHS programs and centers (e.g., location, program timing, outreach, staffing and leadership, salaries and benefits, community partnerships, communication across centers and programs)?
- What are the characteristics of families participating in MSHS (e.g., demographics, agricultural livelihoods and mobility, social and economic challenges, cultural and linguistic features)? How do the migrant families and seasonal families differ?
- What are the characteristics of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers enrolled in MSHS (e.g., demographics, health, languages)? What foundational skills for school success do MSHS children possess (with a special focus on language, emergent literacy, and socioemotional skills)?
MSHS Services, Instructional Practices, and Quality
- What services are MSHS programs and centers providing to support children's development and family well-being and engagement?
- What are the service needs and preferences of MSHS families, and potential barriers to their accessing services?
- What are the instructional practices and general quality of MSHS classrooms? What instructional and assessment practices and policies are used to support children's language development, including bilingual language development?
Associations Between MSHS Characteristics and Child/Family Well-Being
- How do families' service needs vary based on family characteristics (e.g., cultural, social, economic, and migration-related experiences)?
- How are MSHS services and resources related to family, staff, program, and community characteristics?
- How are family characteristics related to children's foundational skills for school success?
Study Design View help for Study Design
The conceptual framework for the MSHS Study was initially developed for the "MSHS Design Report". The study team incorporated many of the Report's recommendations in designing the current study. In particular, they relied on input from the MSHS community on measure development, approaches to recruitment and data collection, and sampling. Specifically,
- A Community Consultant Group made up of program directors collaborated with the study team to discuss recruitment plans for data collection, and to promote the MSHS Study in their programs and centers and with their MSHS families.
- To engage MSHS programs and centers, the study team distributed bilingual newsletters to update programs and centers on study activities. They also released a video that programs and centers could use with their staff to let them know about the study's objectives and background.
- During the study planning phase, the study team attended the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association Conference, where they presented on the study to program and center directors and parents in attendance and held informal discussions with program leadership.
- Throughout the study itself, the team worked closely with federal MSHS staff, who provided input and guidance.
Sample View help for Sample
The MSHS Study provides information about MSHS children and their families, classrooms, centers, and programs. There are two samples for the study.
The first sample includes the programs and centers whose directors were sent a survey. All program directors providing center-based services received a survey, as well as a random selection of 252 center directors operated by those programs across five geographic regions covering the 48 contiguous U.S. states (East, Midwest, Northwest, Southeast, and California/Southwest). The study team worked to ensure that centers of different sizes were represented within each region and each program.
The second sample includes those centers that the study team visited to collect information from classrooms, teachers, assistant teachers, families, and children. This sample is a nationally representative sample that was selected in 4 stages:
- MSHS programs that provide center-based services were selected across geographic regions
- centers were then selected from that pool of programs
- classrooms were then selected from that group of centers
- and finally, children (and their families) were selected from those classrooms.
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
All Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs (grantees and delegate agencies that operated as independent administrative organizations) in the 48 contiguous U.S. states providing center-based services to children and families. The universe was comprised of 36 MSHS programs and 402 MSHS centers.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
Program Director Survey
- Unweighted Response Rate = 88.9 percent
Center Director Survey
- Unweighted Response Rate = 79.8 percent
- Weighted Response Rate = 79.6 percent
Direct Assessments of Children
- Unweighted Response Rate = 81.5 percent
- Weighted Response Rate = 86.5 percent
Ages and Stages Questionnaire, Third Edition
- Unweighted Response Rate = 85.7 percent
- Weighted Response Rate = 91.0 percent
Teacher Report of Child
- Unweighted Response Rate = 85.3 percent
- Weighted Response Rate = 89.8 percent
Parent Report of Child
- Unweighted Response Rate = 77.2 percent
- Weighted Response Rate = 82.0 percent
Classroom Observation
- Unweighted Response Rate = 100.0 percent
- Weighted Response Rate = 100.0 percent
Teacher Survey
- Unweighted Response Rate = 97.5 percent
- Weighted Response Rate = 98.3 percent
Assistant Teacher Survey
- Unweighted Response Rate = 89.3 percent
- Weighted Response Rate = 92.9 percent
Parent Interview
- Unweighted Response Rate = 83.1 percent
- Weighted Response Rate = 88.4 percent
Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales
In addition to measures developed by the study team that are available for download, the following scales were used:
- Ages and Stages Questionnaire, Third Edition (ASQ-3) Communication Subscale
- Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (BITSEA)
- Leiter, Third Edition (Leiter-3), Examiner Rating Scales: Cognitive/Social and Emotional/Regulation
- MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory / Inventario del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas (CDI / IDHC) Short Forms
- Preschool Language Scales, Fifth Edition (PLS-5) or PLS-5 Spanish, Auditory Comprehension
- Socioemotional Scale from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Birth Cohort (ECLS-B)
- Woodcock-Mu?oz Language Survey - Revised Normative Update: Letter-Word Identification (English) and Identificaci?n de letras y palabras (English/Spanish)
Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2019-10-28
Version History View help for Version History
2023-05-17 Supplemental qualitative data files are now available for the staff surveys (DS2, DS4, DS7, DS8) and parent interview (DS18), and a Supplemental User's Guide for the qualitative data was added to the collection. Principal investigator information was also updated for all documentation.
2020-06-01 Principal investigator information was updated for all documentation.
2019-10-28 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Weight View help for Weight
Weights should be used to analyze data from the MSHS Study to produce estimates that represent the MSHS population. Using analysis weights is essential for reducing potential bias from differential probabilities of selection and nonresponse.
The study team included different types of weights that account for the complex sampling design of the MSHS Study. First, they included base sampling weights that account for the sampling probability at each stage. Base sampling weights should not be used for analysis, because they do not adjust for the non-response of sampled units. However, these weights are included so that users can understand the sampling approach in the MSHS Study. Second, the study team included analysis weights, which adjust the base sampling weights for the non-response of sampled units. Analysis weights must be used in all analyses of data from the MSHS Study to adjust for unequal sampling probabilities and for non-response.
Details on the calculation of the weights are provided in Appendix E of the MSHS Study User's Guide.
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The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.
One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.