3/20/2024 0 Comments Head start student teacher ratioThese guidelines specify that Head Start is to provide a wide range of services in addition to providing a good learning environment. Head Start is run at the local level, but local operators are subject to federal quality guidelines. Head Start is a popular program-the number of children served and federal appropriations grew during both the Bush and Clinton administrations, as shown in Figures 1 and 2. The program is not an entitlement, but is funded by an annual appropriation, which means that when funds run out, eligible children cannot be served. Though the program is large, enrollment represents only about 35 percent of eligible poor three- and four-year-old children. Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” Head Start now serves almost 800,000 children in predominantly part-day programs, according to 1999 data from the Administration on Children, Youth and Families. Begun in 1965 as part of President Lyndon B. Head Start aims to improve the skills of disadvantaged children so that they can begin schooling on an equal footing with their more advantaged peers. For this reason, they merit some expansion and greater attention paid to their quality. Although Head Start centers vary in quality, on average they are better than privately-run child care centers, have achieved short-term benefits, and would pay for themselves if they produced even a fraction of the long-term benefits associated with model programs.Given evidence that disadvantaged children are the ones most in need of a preschool experience, priority should be given to expanding Head Start rather than to funding universal preschool.Head Start may have focused too heavily on social supports at the expense of language and literacy training, but children need to acquire both cognitive and noncognitive skills before they enter school.The program is associated with short-term gains in cognitive skills as well as longer-term gains in school completion, and even greater gains are possible if children receive good follow-up in the early grades.The best available evidence suggests that: The debate may also revolve around whether the government should increase funding for Head Start so that more low-income children can attend, or move toward support of a universal preschool program, as advocated by Vice President Al Gore during the 2000 presidential campaign. When Congress and the new administration debate the future of Head Start, the public preschool program for poor children, the questions will be whether the program works and whether it should place more emphasis on specific academic goals, such as reading readiness, as President George W.
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