The more I delve into the issues of poverty equity and excellence in early care and education, the happier I am I chose the National Head Start Association as my web resource for this course. The website has a research tab where a compilation of dialog briefs about trends and issues related to the education of the most underprivileged and more often underserved children in our societies. Some of the dialog briefs discuss the education of dual language learners, changing demographics, children living in immigrant families and addressing the needs of children with special needs and their families. Some of the briefs are related to the improvement of delivery systems and programming such as early childhood educator credentials, improving school readiness and providing comprehensive care for the children. This website has been crucial to my understanding of the current trends and issues in child development and has added many relevant insights to the topics discussed in this course.
More often than not, we address equity issues separately. The need for quality has dominated the field. However, quality cannot change the lives of children if families cannot afford or access programs. Therefore, Head Start has recognized the need to offer comprehensive services to children. Additionally, the program conducts community outreach programs to reach out to the families, help them understand the benefits of Head Start in children’s cognitive, social emotional and health and wellness development. Ultimately, the outreach program can potentially increase enrollment, as more parents will be aware of the services provided and ways to utilize them. Furthermore, the needs of subgroups such as homeless and children from migrant families are taken into account to specify their service-delivery methods.
More importantly, the association recognizes the need to strengthen the family as a unit by providing parents with the necessary tools to partake in the education of their children. Parents have the opportunities to advocate for their needs of their children at the program as well as the public level. Head Start supports family involvement in all aspects of programming from decision making, classroom activity involvement, parent observation opportunities among others. In order for us to make a substantial difference in the lives of children we have to provide quality, improve access and utilization, and support the family engagement. The National Head Start Association is taking the lead in all the aforementioned fronts.. Therefore, I have high hopes that the future can be bright for millions of children enrolled in Head Start and Early Head Start programs.
For more information on the NHSA publications go to http://www.nhsa.org/research/dialog_briefs
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