Head Start Impact
Head Start Impact

Author: Michael J. Puma

Publisher: Nova Novinka

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13:

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Since its beginning in 1965 as a part of the War on Poverty, Head Start's goal has been to boost the school readiness of low-income children. Based on a 'whole child' model, the program provides comprehensive services that include pre-school education; medical, dental, and mental health care; nutrition services; and efforts to help parents foster their child's development. Head Start services are designed to be responsive to each child's and family's ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage. The Congressionally-mandated Head Start Impact Study was conducted across 84 nationally representative grantee/delegate agencies. Approximately 5,000 newly entering 3- and 4-year-old children applying for Head Start were randomly assigned to either a Head Start group that had access to Head Start program services or to a non- Head Start group that could enrol in available community non-Head Start services, selected by their parents. Data collection began in fall 2002 and is scheduled to continue through 2006, following children through the spring of their 1st-grade year. The study quantifies the impact of Head Start separately for 3- and 4-year-old children across child cognitive, social-emotional, and health domains as well as ii on parenting practices. This book is essential reading for those in the education field.

Transforming the Financing of Early Care and Education
Transforming the Financing of Early Care and Education

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2018-07-17

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 0309470439

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High-quality early care and education for children from birth to kindergarten entry is critical to positive child development and has the potential to generate economic returns, which benefit not only children and their families but society at large. Despite the great promise of early care and education, it has been financed in such a way that high-quality early care and education have only been available to a fraction of the families needing and desiring it and does little to further develop the early-care-and-education (ECE) workforce. It is neither sustainable nor adequate to provide the quality of care and learning that children and families needâ€"a shortfall that further perpetuates and drives inequality. Transforming the Financing of Early Care and Education outlines a framework for a funding strategy that will provide reliable, accessible high-quality early care and education for young children from birth to kindergarten entry, including a highly qualified and adequately compensated workforce that is consistent with the vision outlined in the 2015 report, Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation. The recommendations of this report are based on essential features of child development and early learning, and on principles for high-quality professional practice at the levels of individual practitioners, practice environments, leadership, systems, policies, and resource allocation.

The Head Start Debates
The Head Start Debates

Author: Edward Zigler

Publisher: Brookes Publishing Company

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 600

ISBN-13:

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The first book to capture the debates surrounding Head Start in all their complexity and diversity, this landmark volume will help readers understand the role of these controversies in the program's past and their influence on its future. Two Head Start experts bring together the research and personal experience of leaders in a wide range of fields, including education, research, medicine, and social work. This powerful compilation of voices mines Head Start's history for mistakes made and lessons learned, presents a multifaceted view of where the program should be headed, and offers contrasting viewpoints on three major issues: Goals. Explores different opinions about three ways of thinking about Head Start's goals: cognitive development versus school readiness/social competence, short-term versus long-term progress, and antipoverty tool versus child development program. Effectiveness. Presents views on the impact of Head Start on children's school readiness and success, health, and family functioning -- and discusses how research might be improved so outcomes in these areas can be more meaningfully assessed. Future directions. Explains positions on where Head Start should be headed as it approaches its fifth decade. Opinions are offered on quality improvement, the timing and duration of early intervention, administrative changes, and Head Start's capacity for meeting child care needs and expanding access to preschool services. This comprehensive, forward-thinking book will help readers understand the complexity of Head Start, clarify the multiple sides of the debates that have long surrounded it, and shape effective social policy for America's most at-risk children and their families. Book jacket.

Early Start
Early Start

Author: Andrew Karch

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2013-04-09

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 0472118722

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In the United States, preschool education is characterized by the dominance of a variegated private sector and patchy, uncoordinated oversight of the public sector. Tracing the history of the American debate over preschool education, Andrew Karch argues that the current state of decentralization and fragmentation is the consequence of a chain of reactions and counterreactions to policy decisions dating from the late 1960s and early 1970s, when preschool advocates did not achieve their vision for a comprehensive national program but did manage to foster initiatives at both the state and national levels. Over time, beneficiaries of these initiatives and officials with jurisdiction over preschool education have become ardent defenders of the status quo. Today, advocates of greater government involvement must take on a diverse and entrenched set of constituencies resistant to policy change. In his close analysis of the politics of preschool education, Karch demonstrates how to apply the concepts of policy feedback, critical junctures, and venue shopping to the study of social policy.