Unlocking the Potential of the Dual Language Learners Program Assessment (DLLPA) to Support Head Start’s Children and Families

Introduction 

Head Start is a federally funded early learning program that has been serving young children and families in households with low incomes for 60 years. Head Start has enrolled over 40 million children and their families; in fiscal year 2023, it funded services for 778,420 infants, toddlers, and pregnant women in Early Head Start and 541,021 preschool-aged children in Head Start Preschool programs.^i,ii

Nationwide, 34 percent of children enrolled in the Head Start program are dual language learners (DLLs)—children who are learning more than one language during their early years of development. While most DLLs in Head Start programs come from Spanish-speaking homes, hundreds of languages are represented among DLLs who attend Head Start.ⁱⁱⁱ Research has well documented the multiple benefits of supporting young DLLs’ home language and English language development.^iv

To help Head Start programs and staff provide high-quality early care and education (ECE) services and management systems for DLL children and their families, the Office of Head Start created the Dual Language Learners Program Assessment (DLLPA); see box below. Programs can use this self-assessment tool to better understand this population of children and improve how they meet their unique needs.

Head Start developed the Dual Language Learners Program Assessment (DLLPA) in 2017 to help its grant recipients comprehensively gauge their strengths and needed areas of improvement in supporting young DLLs and families, based on existing evidence. The DLLPA helps grant recipients conduct this assessment across multiple domains of program operations and is meant to be completed by Head Start program staff. When used regularly or at key points in the program year, the DLLPA can help programs track their progress over time. The instrument contains 111 items in 10 different sections that span grant recipients’ management systems to program service areas, as shown in Figure 1. Every item contains a rating scale from 1-5, and programs can decide what each rating means (e.g., a 4 to indicate “very good” and a 5 for “excellent”), as this is not specified in the tool. Scoring the DLLPA can be done automatically when using the online version or manually when using a printed version. Freely accessible to all programs on the HeadStart.gov website (formerly the Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center [ECLKC]), program staff can utilize the DLLPA Users’ Guide to learn more about the tool, including recommendations on which program staff may be best suited to complete different components of the DLLPA.

Figure 1. The Dual Language Learners Program Assessment tool is organized into 10 sections grouped as management systems or program service areas
Sections included in the Dual Language Learners Program Assessment tool and sample items

Source: Head Start. Dual Language Learners Program Assessment: Users’ Guide. Office of Head Start. https://headstart.gov/culture-language/dual-language-learners-program-assessment-users-guide/dual-language-learners-program-assessment-users-guide
Note: These are illustrative examples of items included in each section of the DLLPA. The full instrument contains 111 items across all sections.

About this brief

This brief reports on perspectives from some Head Start regional and national training and technical assistance specialists (T/TA) and DLL research experts on the strengths of the DLLPA, areas where the tool could be improved, and considerations for its continued use in Head Start and other ECE programs. We sought to answer three research questions:

• How are Head Start grant recipients using the DLLPA to support programs with DLL children and their families?
• How do the regional and national T/TA specialists engage with Head Start grant recipients to use the DLLPA and/or implement follow-up actions based on the results?
• Are there any changes or updates that would improve the use of the DLLPA among Head Start grant recipients?

Specifically, the brief summarizes information about the potential for the DLLPA to support DLLs and their families, gleaned from listening sessions with regional T/TA specialists and with three bilingual language development research experts who collectively bring more than 20 years of experience working with Head Start staff, DLL children, and their parents.

Key findings

• Training and technical assistance (T/TA) specialists in the Office of Head Start Training and Technical Assistance system unanimously felt that the DLLPA is a comprehensive tool. However, some also reported that it was underutilized, suggesting that the breadth of items and coverage of many topics made it overwhelming for Head Start grant recipients to use.
• According to T/TA specialists, the grant recipients who work with the tool most often focus on the Training and Professional Development section and on the six sections within the Program Service The specialists also noted that the tool emphasizes the need to demonstrate respect for elements of families’ culture and foster language connections.
• DLL research experts shared that Head Start grant recipients should strive to respond to the DLLPA items in the Teaching and Learning Environment, Curricula, and Family and Community Engagement Program Services sections that focus on incorporating families’ home languages into the program environment and preparing families to engage Head Start staff. Recipients should respond to families’ unique situations.
• These experts also felt the tool was too general in its description of certain practices to facilitate teaching and support learning. Instead, they recommended incorporating more specific best practices into the DLLPA to better prepare the ECE workforce—especially within the Training and Professional Development section and the six sections of the Program Service Area.
• DLL experts recommended that Head Start more actively promote use of the DLLPA. Strategies could include recognizing Head Start grant recipients who use the tool to make program enhancements, or marketing strategies to show how Head Start programs have demonstrated successful approaches to working with DLL children.
• Overall, DLL research experts and T/TA specialists recommended more frequent trainings focused on the DLLPA and events focused on DLLs throughout the school year to enhance the experience of DLLs in Head Start programs.

Background

Dual Language Learners have a range of characteristics and needs.

Dual language learners are heterogeneous, spanning multiple language groups, countries of origin (including many born in the United States), and demographic backgrounds (e.g., parent socioeconomic status and education level). Importantly, DLLs also vary in their trajectories to acquire more than one language, including the timing and amount of exposure to each language; their language interactions with family members, peers, and educators, and in their communities; and the rate at which they acquire skills in each language. This variability has implications for the areas of strength and growth that individual DLL children bring to their ECE learning settings, and for educators charged with serving the needs of multiple DLL children in their classrooms and programs.

Investing in both the home language and English matters for DLLs.

Research consistently highlights the benefits of supporting DLLs in both their home language and in English during early childhood. For example:

• DLL children whose Spanish language development is supported show growth in their Spanish and English language abilities, social development, and mathematical reasoning.^v,vi,vii.
• Compared to their English-speaking monolingual peers, DLL children entering Head Start make significant gains in language and literacy after one year in the program.^viii Further, DLL children continue to grow in their English literacy skills over time.^ix
• Spanish-English DLL preschoolers make notable gains in English vocabulary when their Spanish language skills are strong, even without direct Spanish instruction in school, suggesting that home language proficiency can positively influence English development.^x

DLL children who show strong skills in acquiring both languages outperform their peers who are dominant in one language only.

• DLL children with strong skills in both languages outperform their English-dominant and Spanish-dominant DLL peers across multiple domains, including language, literacy, cognitive development, and math skills.^xi
• Some studies find that Spanish-English DLLs demonstrate significantly stronger executive functioning skills than their more English-dominant and Spanish-dominant peers^xii; however, one study found no evidence for a bilingual advantage in executive functioning among older students.^xiii

In sum, these findings show the benefits of developing skills to speak more than one language, in addition to how supporting DLL children’s home language is critical to their ability to continue to grow these skills, acquire English, and gain early learning skills. ECE programs, such as Head Start, can support DLL children’s early learning by intentionally delivering services that support their home language growth.

Findings

In this section, we first present findings from the T/TA specialists, sharing their perspectives on the use of the DLLPA and supporting grant recipients to implement the tool’s recommended practices. We also present their suggestions for improvement and for any available resources about the tool. We then present perspectives from the DLL expert panel, including their general impressions and their thoughts about specific DLLPA items related to providing home language supports, engaging families, and preparing the workforce.

T/TA specialists’ perspectives

Head Start grant recipients’ use of DLLPA

• T/TA specialists reported that many grant recipients see the DLLPA as a comprehensive tool that covers many content areas. However, they also find the DLLPA overwhelming, even when T/TA providers facilitate conversations about each section.
• T/TA specialists indicated that the grant recipients who have used the tool usually focus on the Training and Professional Development section and the six sections within the Program Service Area. Specialists also noted the importance of questions focused on how to support DLLs’ development, as well as those pertaining to connecting with families’ cultural backgrounds.
• T/TA specialists reported that programs are now gradually renewing their refocus on DLL priorities following the COVID-19 pandemic disruption. They believed that other contextual factors are also impacting the use of the DLLPA, including shifting demographics within the grant recipient population, families’ comfort in disclosing their home language practices, and staff turnover that may affect Head Start grant recipients’ use of the DLLPA.
• More broadly, T/TA specialists shared that the term “DLL” may not resonate with all populations—including, for example, in American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) Head Start communities, which may be more centered in language revitalization efforts and hold differing beliefs concerning when and how to introduce a second language. Contextual and population-related factors may result in grant recipients having different perspectives about language learning and whether the DLLPA is relevant to their program and community.

Engaging grant recipients in DLLPA practices and follow-up

• T/TA specialists who participated in the conversation reported using the DLLPA with grant recipients in the context of annual planning or via coaching supports; however, competing priorities among grant recipients make it challenging to consistently use the tool. Specifically, it was harder for T/TA specialists to sustain focus on the DLLPA as Head Start grant recipients are responsible for responding to a wide range of priorities.
• T/TA specialists use the DLLPA in various ways when engaging with grant recipients. For example, they may engage with the tool flexibly to examine a grant recipient’s responses to DLLPA items in conjunction with the data they submitted as part of the annual Program Information Report. Sections of the DLLPA are also used to illustrate supports that grant recipients can use with DLL children and their families. For instance, one T/TA specialist described putting data from a section of the DLLPA, with visuals, onto a Padlet or other virtual storyboard to discuss with a grant recipient.
• T/TA specialists felt that the DLLPA Users’ Guide—along with the DLL Academy held in 2018-2019—had effectively introduced the tool to Head Start grant recipients and helped them begin using it, starting with sections they felt were most relevant to their programs.
• T/TA specialists identified two resources, both available on HeadStart.gov, as valuable complements to Head Start grant recipients’ efforts to implement the guidance and practice outlined in the DLLPA. Specifically, the Making It Work^xiv training guide offers an approach to integrate Tribal or community culture and language into the classroom in ways that align with Head Start learning outcomes (especially for Region XI, which serves AIAN Head Start communities). In addition, there are rich resources on HeadStart.gov describing the Planned Language Approach,^xv a comprehensive, systemic, research-based way to help early childhood programs support the language and literacy development of all children, including DLLs.

Suggestions for improvement

• T/TA specialists recommended multi-day, strategic planning opportunities for Head Start program staff to use the DLLPA, followed by structured supports for year-long engagement with the tool.
• Some T/TA specialists wanted to go “deeper and not wider,” meaning that grant recipients would focus on some areas of the instrument, using more time to develop new areas of practice and make refinements over time.
• Effective use of the DLLPA requires inclusive planning from the start, involving staff beyond leadership (e.g., Parent Policy Council, governing board), along with clearer expectations about who would be responsible for action steps identified via the DLLPA. While this is outlined in the materials, T/TA specialists who shared their thoughts rarely reported working with a team of individuals.

DLL expert panelists’ perspectives

General impressions

• The research experts were generally supportive of the DLLPA’s comprehensive approach to prompt Head Start grant recipients to develop program services and management systems for DLL children and their families. They commented that, since the tool has existed for less than 10 years—and given the growth in DLL populations among early childhood learners—it would be important to continue increasing awareness of the tool among Head Start grant recipients.
• Researchers discussed the need for more clarity with terms used in the DLLPA, including “stakeholder” and the phrase “when possible,” which currently lack clear definitions or are vague. They also noted the challenge to users in completing the tool without referencing specific Head Start Program Performance Standards and identifying exactly what is being assessed. Lastly, the scoring system was discussed as a limiting factor because the tool does not specify a total score or strengths and weaknesses based on the self-assessment completed by the grant recipients. To improve usability of the DLLPA, researchers recommended providing examples and links to relevant resources, along with greater inclusion of current research on effective and supportive instructional strategies.

Home language supports and engaging families

• DLL research experts unanimously endorsed adding to the DLLPA an unequivocal statement that providing support for children’s home languages is not optional, given that children’s strong home language skills positively benefit their acquisition of English learning and promote gains in early learning outcomes.
• Researchers also indicated that the DLLPA needs more specific content regarding practices that support families’ beliefs, needs, and priorities around language and culture—particularly by acknowledging that families may use and value language differently at home. Programs should be encouraged to engage families in meaningful conversations about how they would like their home language and culture supported.
• To more effectively engage families, the DLLPA should include items that prompt programs to identify opportunities to provide communication, supports (e.g., interpreters, translation services), and services in families’ home language/preferred language. The DLLPA should also include items that prompt grant recipients to use two-way or bidirectional communications that value and create space for families to lead such conversations, perhaps adding these items to the Family and Community Engagement Program Services section.

Preparing the ECE workforce

• Researchers recommended greater attention to specific staff skills needed to support DLLs, along with ongoing, targeted professional development opportunities—in agreement with the T/TA specialists.
• Lastly, researchers discussed how grant recipients’ use of the DLLPA and the skills of multilingual staff should be recognized in tangible and meaningful ways. For example, staff recognition could be in the form of pay that acknowledges that the ability to speak more than one language is a unique skillset. They also recommended helping grant recipients or multilingual staff obtain certifications and career advancement supports and opportunities, which are currently missing from the DLLPA. Ultimately, the researchers felt that incentives for using the DLLPA should also encourage pathways for multilingual families to enter the early childhood workforce as Head Start staff. For example, these families could first provide input into the tool and then learn more about staff roles and responsibilities and qualifications.

Discussion

Overall, we learned valuable information from the T/TA specialists and our expert DLL researcher panel members. The DLLPA was developed to provide a comprehensive framework that, when used intentionally, can help Head Start grant recipients identify real-time strengths and gaps across key areas such as workforce capacity, curriculum implementation, and family communication. Some of our key findings show that resources exist for T/TA specialists to work with grant recipients and that the tool’s comprehensive nature is a strength.

The participating T/TA specialists also indicated that full utilization of the DLLPA has been impeded by competing priorities, the need for sustained technical assistance, and an overwhelmed feeling among some grant recipients due to the many DLLPA topic areas. Both the DLL research experts and the T/TA specialists agreed that providing more assistance to grant recipients to identify a team of people to focus on completing the DLLPA would be helpful for full implementation, as would more ongoing feedback and greater integration of practices that are responsive to families’ home languages and cultural backgrounds. DLL research experts also noted that the DLLPA’s current scoring system may need to be modified to better facilitate its use as a self-assessment and monitoring tool. In this way, Head Start grant recipients may be able to use the DLLPA to more effectively provide high-quality education for DLL children and their families as part of their ongoing continuous quality improvement practices. With high-level support from a T/TA specialist, grant recipients may also be able to evaluate a program by seeing scores from different areas of the tool. All in all, the DLLPA shows promise for engaging and supporting DLLs and their families in Head Start, with further refinement and training needed to maximize its potential.

Recommendations for T/TA specialists and Head Start staff

The following recommendations are for T/TA specialists and Head Start staff to consider when using the DLLPA to better support young DLLs’ early learning experiences. These recommendations come from our own analysis of feedback from T/TA specialists and the DLL expert panel. We focus on specific Head Start staff roles who may complete different sections of the DLLPA, in accordance with guidance presented in the Users’ Guide and support from T/TA specialists.

T/TA specialists can:

• Encourage Head Start grant recipients to embed the DLLPA into their community needs assessment process, which is required annually. If a community is experiencing a rise in DLL populations, particularly those who speak less commonly supported languages, the DLLPA can help identify where the program may need to expand its supports (e.g., translation capacity, staff training). Embedding the DLLPA into existing community needs assessment activities may be a proactive, promising approach that ultimately helps programs be more planful and targeted in their investments to offer language supports to children and families, along with professional development opportunities for staff.
• Prompt grant recipients to assess whether they support DLL children’s families by offering materials in their home languages and determine the degree to which staff are equipped to respond to families’ ongoing needs.
• Offer proactive and ongoing assistance to Head Start grant recipients, since programs must demonstrate a broad and deep array of competencies and responsiveness in working with DLLs. T/TA specialists remarked that it would be beneficial to offer year-round opportunities to share the DLLPA framework with Head Start grant recipients—including specific Head Start staff roles—to create opportunities for ongoing discussion and feedback. Ultimately, supporting strong partnerships with T/TA providers and Head Start grant recipients represents an important mechanism for serving DLL children and their families.
• Consult items in the DLLPA’s Training and Professional Development section on providing research-based trainings to Head Start staff on first and second language development and identifying opportunities for sustained professional development (e.g., via practice-based coaching).
• Reach out to research experts on bilingual language development in local communities who could connect with program staff and potentially help grant recipients improve their supports for DLL children and families.
• Help grant recipients implement more collaborative practices with families.

Human resources and program/center directors can:

• Consult items in the DLLPA’s Program Planning and Service System Design section, which covers budgeting and planning for program operations that will strengthen programs’ capacity to better serve DLL children and families. For example, these items include prompts for budgeting resources to provide effective supports to DLL children’s learning and to recruit bilingual professionals.
• Ensure that their staff are prepared to receive children who are DLLs and to incorporate their families into the Parent Policy Council and other aspects of family-led decision making.

Family service workers can:

• Consult the DLLPA section on Family and Community Engagement Program Services, which includes items on identifying interpreters, incorporating home language experiences in the classroom, and inviting speakers of the home language to volunteer in classrooms. Such items can be helpful to family service workers and other frontline workers who experience rapid shifts in the populations they serve. For example, the items in this section could inform a community needs assessment of the languages spoken by family members within the program and align with HSPPS regulation 1302.50 Family Engagement.

Lead teachers, assistant teachers, and teacher aides can:

• Consult items in the DLLPA’s Teaching and the Learning Environment section that discuss the importance of teachers understanding developmentally appropriate behaviors in DLL children. These include code switching and translanguaging; preparing learning environments to support children’s languages and cultures; and providing opportunities for children to see their home language in writing and to speak their home language while also learning English. Guidance for these and other practices is offered for teachers of DLL students in the HSPPS regulation 1302.31 Teaching and the Learning Environment.
• Benefit from ongoing, sustained professional development to foster dual language growth in DLL children and to support their overall developmental progress, given the close and supportive relationships teachers are expected to develop with both children and their families.

Methodology

The data sources for this brief included a series of listening activities with Office of Head Start staff and specialists from the Office of Head Start T/TA system in addition to expert reviews from DLL researchers. As background prior to these conversations, we reviewed a series of data reports generated by the Office of Head Start regarding the data on grant recipient requests made for T/TA supports, which was logged in the Head Start Enterprise System (HSES) Data Hub and shared with us by OHS during this time period.

In May 2024, we conducted a listening session with Office of Head Start staff specialists from the Office of Head Start T/TA systems supports program, representing a wide range of the country. This listening session was designed to answer the three research questions regarding how Head Start grant recipients were using the tool, their engagement with the DLLPA, and their perceptions of strengths or recommendations for addressing in the DLLPA instrumentation and use.

Next, in June 2024, we interviewed three experts on DLL development, assessment, and instructional practices who were familiar with or had conducted research themselves with DLLs and Head Start programs. These experts were recruited by our research team due to their publication records and research projects involving DLL children and families. Through the expert review, we sought to: 1) identify high-priority constructs, items, and redundancies in the DLLPA; 2) get suggestions related to meaningful scoring when using the DLLPA; and 3) hear recommendations to improve the DLLPA and/or better support Head Start grant recipients to effectively use it. We shared the 10 sections of the DLLPA with the three experts and asked them to provide comments on six sections each (some sections were reviewed by more than one person). Next, two experts had a one-hour discussion with our team, followed by the third expert two weeks later, to discuss the experts’ impressions and make recommendations about the DLLPA for Head Start grant recipients. We also asked about strategies for implementing the DLLPA with Head Start program staff and specific strategies for giving guidance to programs just beginning to work with DLL populations. After speaking to all three experts, our team coded their perspectives according to the areas on which they commented and what recommendations they had given about the DLLPA for Head Start grant recipients.

Suggested Citation

Mendez, J., LaForett, D. R., & Jacome Ceron, A. (2025).  Unlocking the potential of the Dual Language Learners Program Assessment (DLLPA) to support Head Start’s children and families. National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families. https://doi.org/10.59377/272i3859e

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Steering Committee of the National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families—along with Kristen Harper, Laura Ramirez, and Ana Maria Pavić—for their helpful comments, edits, and research assistance at multiple stages of this project. The Center’s Steering Committee is made up of the Center investigators—Drs. Natasha Cabrera (University of Maryland, Co-PI), Danielle Crosby (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Co-PI), Lisa Gennetian (Duke University; Co-PI), Lina Guzman (Child Trends, PI), Doré LaForett (Child Trends, Co-I), Julie Mendez (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Co-PI), and Maria Ramos-Olazagasti (Child Trends, Deputy Director and Co-PI)—and federal project officers Drs. Jenessa Malin and Kimberly Clum (Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation).

This brief is supported by Grant Number 90PH0032 from the Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation within the Administration for Children and Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services totaling $7.84 million with 99 percentage funded by ACF/HHS and 1 percentage funded by nongovernment sources. Neither the Administration for Children and Families nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse this brief. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Administration for Children and Families and the Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation. For more information, please visit the ACF website, Administrative and National Policy Requirement.

Editor: Brent Franklin

Designers: Joseph Boven and Krystal Figueroa

About the Authors

Julia Mendez, PhD, is a co-principal investigator of the National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families, co-leading the research area on early care and education. She is a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her research focuses on risk and resilience among low-income and Latino children and families, with an emphasis on parent- child interactions and family engagement in early care and education programs.

Doré R. LaForett, PhD, is a research scholar in the early childhood development area at Child Trends. Her research spans the areas of child development and the educational experiences of multicultural and multilingual young children and families; contexts that influence children’s academic and social-emotional development; educational, social-behavioral, and family-focused interventions; early care and education programs; and children who are dual language learners.

Anyela Jacome Ceron, MPS, is a graduate student in a Clinical Psychology program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She received a master’s degree from the University of Maryland, College Park in Clinical Psychological Science and a second master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her research interests focus on the well-being of children and families and understanding risk and protective factors in the context of Latino culture. She also has interests in family engagement in early care and education programs.

About the Center

The National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families (Center) conducts research to inform programs and policy to better serve Hispanic children and families with low incomes. Our research focuses on poverty reduction and economic self-sufficiency; child care and early education, including federal programs such as Head Start (HS) and the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF); and cross-cutting topics that include parenting, family structure, and family dynamics. The Center is led by Child Trends, in partnership with Duke University, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and University of Maryland, College Park.

Copyright 2025 by the National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families.