Head Start Essay -- essays papers

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. In 1964, the Federal Government asked a panel of child development experts to draw up a program to help communities meet the needs of disadvantaged preschool children. The panel became the blueprint for Project Head Start (U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources, 2002). Beginning as an eight-week summer program out of the Office of Economic Development, the Head Start program was well received by the education community. From the outset the program offered not only an education program, but also a health program for children. The program strongly encouraged parental involvement and offered the parents social service help if warranted. Right now the program is administered by the Administration for Children and Families. There are Head Start programs in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. territories ( The Online Head Start Resource Center, 2002). In 1994, the Early Head Start Program was established, because it was determined that children from birth to t... ...n. (ERIC Document Re-Productive Service No. ED327313) 6. Schweinhart, L. (2002). Recent Evidence on Preschool Programs. (ERIC Digest No.____). Champaign, IL: ERIC Clearing house on Elementary and Early Childhood Education. (ERIC Document Reproductive Service No. ED458046) 7. Head Start Works, But Needs More Funding and Better Teachers, (2002). Retrieved on November 5, 2002 from NIEER (National Institute for Early Learning Response, http://nieer.org/media center/index.php?pressid=7 8. Merrow, J. (2002, September 25)., The Failureof Head Start. Educationweek. Retrieved on November 5, 2002, from http://wwwedweek.org/le/ewstory.cfm?slug=04merrow.h22 9. Lubeck, S. (1990). Four-Year-Olds and Public Schooling. (ERIC Digest No _____). Urbana, IL: ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education. (ERIC Document Reproductive Service No. ED325204)