Research indicates that full-day and full-year programs are associated with greater gains in cognitive skills. This new requirement would more than double the amount of time that hundreds of thousands of Head Start children spend in the classroom, increasing their opportunities for high-quality interactions with their teachers and peers. The new proposed minimum is 6 hours per day and 180 days per year. Currently, Head Start centers must provide services for at least 3.5 hours per day and 128 days per year. Perhaps the most significant change in the proposed performance standards is the increase in minimum program hours. Moving to full-day and full-year programs. Here are five changes to the standards that stood out to us:ġ. The proposed performance standards reflect the latest research on early education and Head Start in particular, and would help ensure that all Head Start programs produce the best possible outcomes. In response, advocates, policymakers, and researchers have been focused on improving the quality of Head Start so that all children leave the program prepared to succeed in school and in life. Head Start is the nation’s largest pre-K program and it has come under intense scrutiny since the Head Start Impact Study found that some Head Start children do not experience the significant and lasting achievement gains that children in other high-quality pre-K programs experience. On Tuesday, HHS presented more than just an updated list of standards, they presented a detailed “ Vision for the Future of Head Start.” While it may have taken HHS eight years to revise the standards, it appears that the wait was worthwhile. The Head Start community has been awaiting changes for some time, and many advocates of Head Start reform have been calling on the Department to streamline the standards and shift the focus from compliance to quality (examples here, here, and here). HHS was required to update the standards in 2007 to align with the most recent Head Start reauthorization. Both the early education landscape and our knowledge of the science of early learning have changed dramatically in the last 40 years, and understandably, many of the performance standards were in need of an update. This is the first comprehensive overhaul of the standards since they were first published in 1975. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Administration for Children and Families released the new, improved, and long-awaited Head Start Performance Standards in a Federal Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |