Sharing Web Resources: Part Two--The Politics and Economics of Head Start in the United States

The impact of the government sequester in the United States on the Head Start program seemed particularly relevant to my professional development because not only does it relate to the economics of early childhood services but it also relates to the organization within which I work. By learning about the impact of the sequester on Head Start as a whole and by learning how the Head Start program is impacting children and possibly the economics of the country when these children are grown, I hope to become more familiar with Head Start generally. 

The information about the impact of the US government sequester on Head Start nationally and on Head Start in Illinois helped me think about the number of children affected by the sequester in a new, broader way. In our local Head Start, we served 675 children last year. This year, we are serving about 640. Thirty-five children who would have received services will not receive them. These children are from very poor families. Because we enroll children on a first come first served basis, it seems that children in better circumstances are more likely to enroll first; therefore, among these 35 children might be the children who most needed our services. To me personally, this means I have 17 children in my class instead of 19. This is a welcome change and hopefully, the lower student to teacher ratio will give the children enrolled an even better chance for success. Because I have tended to see this change as positive on a very personal level, I felt like I should look at how this change has affected others.

On the National Head Start Association home page, http://www.nhsa.org/ , it said, “Head Start, Early Head Start and Migrant/Seasonal Head Start programs have had flexibility to implement the 5.27% cut - which amounts to nearly $405,000,000 nationally - but all programs were faced with very difficult decisions about cutting services to children, families, and communities” NHSA, 2013). I live in Illinois, one of the fifty United States. In Illinois, these cuts meant that some programs served fewer children and some programs served children less days each week. As a whole, Illinois Head Start served 1,676 fewer children and served children for 33,410 less days. This is in one medium-sized state out of fifty. To perceive the impact on children throughout the United States, multiply. When children are served fewer days, it also impacts the finances of the teachers and their families. In addition to less school time, the sequester also indirectly impacted how many children and which children are served by causing some programs to decrease or eliminate bus service. This “limits access for the most at-risk families” (from the Illinois Fact Sheet. Here is the link to the fact sheet about the impact of the sequester on Head Start in Illinois: http://my.nhsa.org/download/states/sequestercuts/Illinois%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

 

When there is no sequestering going on, politicians need to know that the programs they support are having benefits to their constituents. Among these benefits are financial benefits. The Head Start impact study was begun in 1998 to test the impact of Head Start on children who started this program at age three and on children who started this program at age four. This study showed a fade out effect in which in the first three years of school the benefits of the head Start program that were seen in kindergarten children were less to non-existent by the time these children reached third grade. The impact measured was academic impact. Because of these results, other studies are being done to determine whether the social emotional benefits of Head Start could be more long term than the academic benefits. Ludwig and Phillips did a study that showed that adults who were Head Start graduates in the early years of Head Start are “now showing long-term outcomes” these adults “had similar short-term benefits to the children in the Impact Study. Ludwig and Phillips used benefit-cost analysis to suggest that the Impact Study itself, when data is analyzed carefully, indicates Head Start is generating benefits beyond what is invested in the program. Here is the link to their study: http://home.uchicago.edu/~ludwigj/papers/NYAS-LudwigPhillips-HeadStart-2008.pdf

 

In this benefit-cost analysis, there is a discussion of other research In a study done by Garces, Thomas and Currie of children who attended Head Start around 1980, results showed “that non-Hispanic, white children who were in Head Start are about 22 percentage points more likely to complete high school than their siblings who were in some other form of preschool, and about 19 percentage points more likely to attend some college.” When an African-American group who attended Head Start was compared to an African-American group who had “other preschool experience” it was estimated that Head Start reduced “the chances of being arrested and charged with a crime by around 12 percentage points.” This is found in the last link mentioned on page 260. These results affected me personally and professionally because they show that what we do to help children grow into whole, happy people has a greater impact on them than what is done academically. This is how I already felt, but when the temptation comes to work on academics to the detriment of play time, I will remember this study.
 

Here is a link of a congress woman who visited my classroom this week to find out about Head Start cuts.

http://www.cinewsnow.com/news/political/Congresswoman-Bustos-learns-how-cuts-affect-Head-Start--225097182.html

The Global Fund for Children and Helping Children around the World

          This week, after looking into many ways of corresponding with international early childhood professionals and after finding the podcast site gone from its previous web address, I looked at the Global fund for children web site. I learned about the approach of the Global Fund for children, and I learned about how some poor children were being helped in Ecuador and how some similar children were being helped in Ethiopia. Although I have not yet found someone to correspond with, I have discovered international early childhood educators who are blogging. I still hope to share information from one of them before the weekend is over.

            The Global Fund for Children’s mission is to scout for, support, and strengthen organizations “that enable the most vulnerable children in their communities to thrive” (Global Fund for Children, 2013, para. 1). The Global Fund for Children looks for organizations that are new and have innovative ideas. It gives the organizations a little money to get them started. The organizations, themselves, take it from there. The Global Fund for Children (2013) strengthens these organizations through “management assistance, capacity building, [and] networking opportunities” (para. 4). One important way that the Global Fund for Children strengthens organizations is by helping those organizations share knowledge with each other at workshops. The following is an example of how the story of one of these organizations was shared and a similar organization commented on the similarity of the work of the two organizations. One organization was in Ecuador. One was in Ethiopia.

            In the barrios of Ethiopia, is located “Fundación UBECI, a grassroots organization that The Global Fund for Children has supported since 2012” (para 3). This organization runs mobile classrooms in “five open-air markets for the children of the vendors in these markets. These children are taught academics as well as “as well as lessons on nutrition, hygiene, and safety” (para 3). The goal of Fundación UBECI is to prepare these children, who generally have been working in the markets since they were very young, to enter traditional school. This foundation also works on parent attitudes toward education and on helping parents see the value in their children working less hours in the market. This foundation also develops relationships with parents who refuse to allow their children to participate in the open air classrooms because the staff at the foundation realizes that the children who do not participate are at the highest risk (Fisher, 2013).

            The following comment from Ethiopia enlightened me to the plight of some young girls. It is very distressing!

I am struck that the situation these children face is almost exactly like the situation in my home village of Koffele, Ethiopia. However, the pight of the young girls is our main focus because they are the victims of kidnapping, rape, female genital mutilation, too early marrage and childbirth which causes fistula and often death. Also, if a family can send a child to school, they will send the boys. That is why we focus on the girls. And, as in your blog, we work with families to convince them to send their girls to school. We, actually give them supplimental nutrition in trade for their cooperation. It has been very successful. In addition, we make home visits to ensure the support of the families. I believe that through
educating the girls they in turn will educate their children, both boys and girls and therfore we will educate the nation

(from https://www.globalfundforchildren.org/remembering-quitos-forgotten-children/  .

I also sent a message to a fourth grade teacher from India to see if she knew of an appropriate colleague who would like to correspond with me for this assignment. As I looked through the many international twitters from teachers around the world, I realized what possibilities there were for worldwide teacher cooperation and idea sharing!

 

References

Fisher, J. (2013, March 4). Remembering Quito’s Forgotten Children. Retrieved from https://www.globalfundforchildren.org/remembering-quitos-forgotten-children/    

  Global Fund for Children (2013). Our Approach. Retrieved from https://www.globalfundforchildren.org/what-we-do/our-approach/

Sharing Web Resources

Sharing Web Resources

            I would like to share a little bit about the National Head Start Association. Their web site address is: http://www.nhsa.org/ . As a person who works in a Head Start school, I feel that the mission of Head Start is to prevent the effects of poverty from keeping children from being unprepared for kindergarten. In this way Head Start helps end the cycle of poverty because when children have trouble in school, they do not have as many opportunities as others as adults. This prevents them from having a high paying job. This in turn leaves their children with the effects of poverty. This is how Head Start states its vision:

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The NHSA Vision

• All children should reach their full potential,
• Every child can succeed,
• We can impact the success of at-risk children, and
• Quality early education fundamentally transforms children and families

The Head Start web site has a section that describes the type of research that Head Start currently promotes as high priority research. Included in the list of about seven different types of research was information about why Head Start sees it as important to do research on the outcomes of not just its children but also of its parents.

“Head Start and Early Head Start were designed as two -generational programs, but most of the research has focused on child outcomes and less attention has been paid to evaluating parent and family outcomes. This is unfortunate because much anecdotal evidence exists about how the lives of Head Start parents have been transformed by Head Start and Early Head Start. The positive changes in parental development and improved family functioning have favorable impacts on a child’s school readiness. NHSA must be an early childhood leader by fostering and promoting research that examines parent and family outcomes.”

I can’t say how many times this summer, as I was doing a parent orientation, I told a parent that he or she should let either a teacher or his or her family services worker know about any family goals because the family services worker could help the family with resources that would help the family reach its goals. I then went on to say that the family goals would also help the child or children reach their goals. Actually, family goals are important for their own sake. In our monthly news letter for our local organization, we highlight a parent who has accomplished something each month. I think this research is important because it shows not only how parents help children but also how children can enrich the lives of their parents.

I also looked for information on changing demographics and diversity. I did not find it, and these issues were not priority research issues. I did, however, discover Dialog Head Start’s research journal. I am in the process of subscribing to it.