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Analysis of head start
Analysis of head start
A eassy on head start
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The purpose of this essay is to offer a concise description of the Head Start program, discuss the historical background of the policy, and analyze the economic and political forces that have influenced the development of the program. The essay also seeks to evaluate both the manifest and latent functions of the policy, consider the current debate around Head Start, describe the ideologies and values that have framed the debate around Head Start, and offer recommendations regarding the program.
Head Start Program
Overview of the Policy
The Head Start Program, typically referred to solely as Head Start, is offered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The program was inaugurated in 1964 as a means of preparing children from low-income families to enter kindergarten with a higher level of preparation (Gillette, 2010). Head Start is funded through the Head Start Act of 1981, which was reauthorized in 2007. Head Start has a budget of over $7 billion and has its own teachers and aides (Banner, 2011).
In fiscal year 2009, the latest year for which data is available from the Administration for Children and Families (2010), the home to the Office of Head Start within the Department of Health and Human Services had an enrollment of 904,153, of which 3% were five-year-olds or older, 51% were four-year-olds, 46% were three-year-olds, and 10% were under three years of age. Children three and under are part of what is known as Early Head Start, an extension of the program that serves the youngest children. The Administration for Children and Families further disclosed that, in fiscal year 2010, 39.9% of children enrolled in Head Start were white, 30% were African-American or Black, and 35.9% were Latino. The sum of the...
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...y. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Barnett, W.S. & Hustedt, J.T. (2003). Head Start’s lasting benefits. Infants and Young Children, 18(1), 16-24.
Black, E. & Black, M. (2003). The rise of southern republicans. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gillette, M.L. (2010). Launching the war on poverty. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Meyers, M.K. & Gornick, J.C. (2003). Public or private responsibility? Early childhood education and care, inequality, and the welfare state. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 34, 379-411.
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Vinovskis, M.A. (2008). The birth of head start. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Wainryb, C., Smetana, J.G., & Turiel. E. (2008). Social development, social inequalities, and social justice. New York, NY: CRC Press.
Dye, Thomas R. , L. Tucker Gibson Jr., and Clay Robinson. Politics In America. Brief Texas Edition ed. New Jersey: Pearson, 2005.
Prochner, L. & Howe, N. (2000). Early Childhood Care and Education in Canada. Vancouver & Toronto: UBC Press.
People attending schools before 1960’s were learning about certain “unscrupulous carpetbaggers”, “traitorous scalawags”, and the “Radical Republicans”(223). According to the historians before the event of 1960’s revision, these people are the reason that the “white community of South banded together to overthrow these “black” governments and restore home rule”(223). While this might have been true if it was not for the fact that the “carpetbaggers were former Union soldiers”, “Scalawags… emerged as “Old Line” Whig Unionists”(227). Eric Foner wrote the lines in his thesis “The New View of Reconstruction” to show us how completely of target the historians before the 1960’s revision were in their beliefs.
My first observation was at Head Start. I talked to Tracey Claflin about some of the principles they use in their program and how they use them. I wasn’t able to observe the children directly because my TB skin test results came up positive. Tracey explained to me that because my results were positive I couldn’t meet children or be in the same room as the children. Due to this, I had to make some arrangements to instead speak with Tracey about some principles she has seen and that they follow. I met with her for an hour discussing the principles and how they were used in the Head Start program. One of the principles she said was highly important for Head Start was principle number 2. She explained that when there is enough time and opportunities to spend time with a child individually the caregiver puts full attention on one child. She explained that they like to focus attention on a child throughout the day so that the child doesn’t feel left out. She says that alone time for a child with a caregiver is usually tummy time. They allow the infants and toddlers to roll around and look at the carpet designs. Tracey explained to me how they asses each child through this quality time that the caregiver and the child have alone. This quality time the caregiver has with the child is important,
Dye, Thomas R., L. Tucker Gibson, Jr., and Clay Robison. Politics in America. Ninth ed. Vol. 2. New York, NY: Longman, 2011. 337. Print.
Some say the New South began to emerge when federal troops were removed from the South in 1877 and consistently was being reformed well into the twentieth century. A group of Democratic office holders, the Redeemers, were said to have redeemed the South from federal intervention. These leaders came from middle classes, and the majority of them had served the Confederacy. The Redeemers were interested in increasing economic opportunities for Southerners. The most important person in the years of the Redeemers was a newspaperman—the “Spokesman of the New South—a man by the name of Henry W. Grady. Grady was a strong promoter of a “New South”. He made an apology for defending slavery and spoke about how the South had learned its lesson. There was certainly not a New South immediately; there were changes in the South, but nothing to classify it as having a new attitude.
Health needs are met due to the program’s emphasis on early detection of medical problems. Each child in Head Start becomes involved in a health program. The health program covers immunizations, medical, dental, and mental services (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2002). Immunizations are ...
During the American Civil War, the Radical Republicans were a branch of the Republican party that believed in the same political rights for blacks and whites and that Confederate leaders should be punished for their crimes. Their main goals were “voting rights for African American men as well as the redistribution of southern plantation lands to freed slaves.” The Radical Republicans had another motive to accomplish. Their motive was to strengthen federal supervision of the Confederacy. The Radical Republicans argued “that the Confederates had broken their contract with the union when they seceded and should be treated as ‘conquered provinces’ subject to congressional supervision.”
In the 1980s, child care was back on the national agenda due to the education reform movement (Tejada, 2010). Tejada further disclosed that several states even launched pre-kindergarten programs for disadvantaged children. Why the Need for Universal Preschool Two-thirds of 4-year-old children in the United States attend preschool, as well as 40% of 3-year-olds (Tejada, 2010). Half of those are enrolled in a public program, such as state prekindergarten (preK), Head Start, or special education, and the other half are in a private program (Adams, 2009). Despite such a large enrollment of children in these programs, there is still a handful of children who are missing out on obtaining a head start in obtaining a good quality education.... ...
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
The announcement was given in the spring of 1965 that an official head start program had been developed and was going to be given a ...
The results of quality preschool programs can be seen early after they begin. Children learn many important life le...
...., Coley, R., & Chase-Lansdale, P. (2004). Child Care and Low-Income Children's Development: Direct and Moderated Effects. Child Development, 296-312. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00670.x. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Early childhood education plays a key role in a child’s academic development because he or she learns soft skills, job skills, and develop positive traits. Preschool is not like kindergarten, but instead a stepping-stone that prepares young students for the years of schooling they will have later in life. As more schools began to open families wanted to be able to verify that programs would benefit and protect their children. In response, the National Association for the Education of Young Children was made to help families find the best care for their children, by providing the early childhood educators with training and ensuring the quality of children’s daily experiences. (“NAEYC”5).
Head Start provides free education and health services to young children who come from economically