An Evaluation of the Head Start Parent, Family, and Community Engagement (PFCE) Framework on the Perception of a Father's Role and the Father's Involvement Facts with the Head Start Programs

In 2011, the Head Start Office introduced the Parent, Family, and Community Engagement (PFCE) Framework to all Head Start programs (Department of Health and Human Services, 2011a). This framework was developed to increase parent involvement in getting children ready for kindergarten. The goal of the framework was to provide technical resources and skills to improve the parent involvement level in Head Start parent involvement activities. The goal of this study is to explore the perception of the role of the father and Head Start programs’ father involvement facts at eight selected Head Start programs. Interview, survey, and activity observation were used. Specifically, the Paternal Involvement in Child Care Index (PICCI) score and father/father figures’ demographic information, family/community coordinator interview answers were gathered from the Head Start programs that participated in the study. Three statistical techniques, independent t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, and multiple-regression were used for quantitative data analysis, and qualitative data was generalized into a flow chart and a father involvement model based on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system theory