Education Week - April 27, 2016 - 22

COMMENTARY

To Create Practical Policies,
Include Practitioners in the Process

W
By Yasmina Vinci

ashington is
sometimes referred to as the
"Beltway bubble," a phenomenon in which
think tanks, lobbyists, and legislators talk only to each other before making
policy decisions that have the potential to
affect millions of children and families nationwide. Unfortunately, this policymakingin-a-bubble method often fails to reflect practical, real-world knowledge. Policymakers'
frequent lack of understanding about how
things work on the ground jeopardizes the
health and well-being of the very people the
government intends to serve.
To break into that bubble, Head Start, the
federally funded early-learning program designed to prepare our nation's most at-risk
children for success in kindergarten and beyond, is taking a different approach to ensure
that its practitioners are at the forefront of
early-childhood policy recommendations.
The policy and research team of the National
Head Start Association (of which I am the executive director) partnered with three other
organizations-the Volcker Alliance, Results
for America, and Bellwether Education Partners-to host a series of nationwide discussions last summer, both by phone and in person, about the future of Head Start's outcome
measurements. Local program leaders from
Minnesota, North Carolina, Texas, and Utah
joined activists, lobbyists, and policymakers
from organizations in Washington to work in
collaboration. The recommendations made
during those discussions, in addition to the
contributions from Head Start leaders from
across the country, formed the basis for a new
report released in January, called "Moneyball
for Head Start: Using Data, Evidence, and
Evaluation to Improve Outcomes for Children and Families."
This report reflects a collaboration that
Head Start leaders hope might inject some
new oxygen into the Beltway bubble by illustrating the possibilities for improvement
that can result from collaboration between
practitioners and those at the policy level.
While Head Start performance standards
currently include some data to inform pro-

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Good policy cannot be created
in the absence of firsthand knowledge."
gram management, the new report proposes
placing data at the center of understanding
effective practices and testing innovative
ideas, both at the individual-program level
and at the national early-education-stakeholder level. The report further contends that
a similar framework of improvement could
also strengthen federal education policies.
It is still too soon for us to have any regulatory or legislative impact at the federal level;
however, these suggestions are already shaping the vision that local Head Start leaders
have for improving outcomes on children's
early learning. Leaders are working with

staff members to use attendance, social and
emotional development, and learning data to
make decisions that support the progress of
individual children.
The report also identifies the infrastructure and technical assistance Head Start
programs need to be effective and calls on
the federal office of Head Start in the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services
to make these resources a priority. But research is needed, and the report recommends
federal funding to develop better outcomemeasurement tools and conduct research on
indicators of quality in the programs.

To make these suggestions effective, our
report tried to answer the following question:
How can policymakers and practitioners
work together to maximize outcomes for children and their families? The first proposed
intervention is simple: Ensure that practitioners (and not just one or two) are part of
every policy conversation.
The engagement of innovative practitioners
in policy is important for two reasons. First,
good policy cannot be created in the absence
of firsthand knowledge. As advocates and
practitioners work together to incorporate
the recommendations into federal laws, regulations, training, and technical assistance, it
helps to know that these ideas are grounded
in reality and stand a stronger chance of
robust outcomes. Second, programs such as
Head Start can feel a sense of ownership in
the values and proposals that they champion.
Rather than following a set of seemingly
semi-informed recommendations proposed
by what amounts to strangers, early-learning practitioners are able to recognize the
insights of some of the brightest minds in
their field.
The approach taken to create such a strategy-whereby policymakers and practitioners work in tandem-has exciting implications for the evolution of policy in general
across a wide range of federal programs. How
many food banks could come to the table to
inform new food-subsidy policies? How many
homeless shelters could take part in conversations about supporting adults with mentalhealth or substance-abuse issues?
If policy discussions in Washington are
truly intended to further the needs of people
and programs across the country, policymakers must invite practitioners to bring their
insights and wisdom into the process. They
must include the people implementing federal programs on the ground. Our legislators
must focus on improving our educational
system together-with all the voices at the
table-to create a better model for a process
of policy development. This is absolutely
critical to magnifying impact and maximizing outcomes for the many children these
programs serve. n
YASMINA VINCI is the executive director of the
National Head Start Association.

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22 | EDUCATION WEEK | April 27, 2016 | www.edweek.org/go/commentary

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in the Vergara v. California case affect
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Education Week - April 27, 2016

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