Head Start
Head Start and Early Head Start are comprehensive child development programs which serve children from birth to age five, pregnant woman and their extended families. They are child-focused programs that have the overall goal of increasing the school readiness of young children in low-income families. . These programs try to prepare young children intellectually, socially, emotionally and physically for their future educational and social endeavors. ( U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2002).. The programs prepare the parent(s) to be supportive in the endeavor. Head Start has the philosophy that parents are a child's first and most influential teacher. The Head Start program is beneficial to early learning.
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The program serves approximately
915,000 children. During the 1999 reauthorization, Congress decided that there was a need for standards of literacy (which have not yet been fully implemented) . ( Good Start, Grow Smart: The Bush Administration's Early Childhood Initiatives, 2002).
In the 1994 legislation revised Head Start performance standards.
Guidelines and new standards were set nationwide. The legislation focused on infants and toddlers and their families as well as quality services for children. The education program is designed to meet the needs of each child in Head Start.
Children must meet specific guidelines in order to qualify for Head Start. Family income (over the last year) is considered. The family must be a low-income family (income below the official poverty level). Other things taken into consideration for acceptance are the lack of another pre-school program in the community, a population of less than 1,000 persons and residence in a remote area.
Head Start programs emphasize the importance of early identification of health problems. Referrals are made to various agencies after each family's needs are identified. Every child accepted into the program receives free medical benefits. The child must have a thorough physical examination and a complete dental examination, as well as hearing and vision screening. Follow up and treatment are a part of the
The birth of the Head Start Program was a direct result of President Johnson’s War on Poverty Act. The Office of Economic Opportunities was originally in charge of the program until its transfer to the Office of Child Development in the Department of Health and Human Services. This department is the cabinet department of the United States charged with the goal of protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. The Head Start Act passed in 1981. Today it is a program within the Administration of Children and Family. The Administration of Children and Families is a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service, (H.H.S.). The Assistant Secretary heads it for Children and Families; it also has a $47 billion budget for 65 programs that targets children, youth, and families.
Head Start is a federally funded, education development program that was created in 1965. The program provides education and services for eligible children from low-income families. Head Start 's philosophy focuses on the development of social-emotional, physical and mental health, nutrition, and working with families and the community and stated “low-income people should help plan and run their own programs” (p. 41-42). Head Start has truly expanded their resources over the years by providing a full school year for ages 3-6 years old and offering services such as health screenings, referrals, and social services (p. 42). Most importantly, each and every Head Start program must follow the federal Head Start Program Performace Standards that address all areas of development (p. 42). The program is truly committed to support low-income families and creating an education system that supports all aspects of the child.
What are the goals of Early Head Start? The goals or priorities of this is to provide safe and developmentally enriching caregiving. To support parent, mother and father, in the role as primary caregivers. The teaching of the children, and family in meeting personal goals. Being able to successfully achieve self sufficiency across a wide variety of domains. Communities being mobilized to provide proper resources and environment that is necessary. But also, to ensure the provision of high quality responsive services for the family. The idea of this topic, is to show the types of things that should be looked for when choosing a child care center. When choosing a child care center for whom it may involve it should be important to look for things like the quality of care, and the type of care and learning techniques that will be involved, while the child is there.
Research for Head Start has found many lasting benefits for learning and educational achievement for its attendees. Including school progress and educational attainment, social behavior, and reduction of delinquency and crime that is usually found within disadvantaged families. Head Start addresses all the guidelines within the Family Impact checklist on providing all adequate services to low income families. As mentioned above, under Family Support and Responsibilities, Head Start is a federally funded program, which also receives donations and grants. Therefore, the federal government must increase funding to the Head Start program so children from low-income families, get early education services to help them succeed in school. Since Head Start programs have minimal funding there are not enough spots available to include every child in need of the services provided by this program, especially within certain regions.
meeting educational, health, social service, and parental needs. “Head Start also wants to help bring about a greater degree of social competence in these children (Mallory and Goldsmith,
Head Start was created in 1965, during Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidential administration, as part of the Great Society plan and the War on Poverty (Currie , 2001). After observing the quality discrepancies between low income and high income educational settings, Johnson realized that “Five and six year old children are inheritors of poverty 's curse…(Johnson, 1965)” As a result, he called for the creation of a program that would allow “…preschool children of poverty [to] get a Head Start on their future (Johnson, 1965).” Soon, Head Start was established, with the goal of “enhance[ing] children’s physical, social, emotional and cognitive development (Mississippi Head Start Association, 2012).”
Healy, C. (2015). Who benefits most from head start programs? Chicago Policy Review (Online), Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.durhamtech.idm.oclc.org/
Head Start programs came about in 1964; when President Johnson declared a “war on poverty.” His idea was you must break the cycle of poverty to win the war. The program’s idea was to help break the cycle of poverty by, providing the children of low-income families the ability to meet the emotional, social, health, nutrition, and mental needs. The Parents also are offered resources in higher education, paying utilities, and other needs that are essential to succeed. According to The Basic Head Start Facts Sheet 2011, Head Start is the nation’s first national early education and early childcare program. Since then over thirty-two million children have had assistance with the program; therefore, has caused an increase of twenty-eight percent in High School Graduations (Smith 8). Head Starts main goal is to lower the achievement gap between lower-class and middle-class children.
Early Head Start is a federally funded grant program. Women can apply when they are pregnant and the school is for ages six weeks up to three years old. It helps out the families who are lower income to get their children the education that they need for the early years of their lives. In Early Head Start there are 48 children that are enrolled in school.
Head Start- in 1964 President Johnson created Head start to benefit low income pre-school age children. Not only were you eligible solely based on your income (low income and below the poverty line) but also parents had to participate the in the educational development of the child by showing supportive home learning environment along with parent learning skills to become better parents for their developing child.
The Head Start program I visited uses a more traditional comprehensive method. Students are all close to the same age. Since the program is federally funded there is much emphasis put on performance standards and teaching objectives.
As the longest running program to acknowledge systematic poverty in the U.S., Head Start is a family-centered program designed to promote school readiness, empower low-income families, and link community agencies and families. The objectives of Head Start are in agreement with the concept of social and economic justice. Based on the liberal viewpoint that the government should be involved with society to make sure that everyone has equal rights and opportunities, Head Start enables low-income families to have equal access to a wide range of services academically, socially, emotionally, and physically, that otherwise would not be accessible to
She declares which the chance of failure for these children is at high risk. Currie argues “those actually enrolled in Head Start are likely to face the most severe problems and are least likely to do well in the future” (683). In defending the needs of these children, it is crucial to provide a preschool program such as Head Start. This is not only an academic resource, but it focuses on the whole child; which means it provides these underprivileged children with opportunities such as: nutrition, health, education, and builds social skills that they otherwise do not have access to.
The lack of attention given to an individual child’s needs can be observed in the structuring of the classroom at Head Start. The program places
According to the Administration for Children and Families (2010), “Head Start is a national program that promotes school readiness by enhancing the social and cognitive development of children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social and other services to enrolled children and families” (para. 3). Based on this mission subject, it is possible to subject Head Start to a program evaluation based on the following questions: (a) Is Head Start provisioning educational, health, nutritional, social and other services to enrolled children and families? (b) Is the provisioning of educational, health, nutritional, social and other services leading to an enhancement of the social and cognitive development of children? (c) Is the social and cognitive development of children a social good for which taxpayers should pay $7 billion a year? These questions will be addressed, both directly and indirectly, later in this overview.