facebooktwitterinstagram “While his accomplishments are too long to list, Director Chopra also advanced reforms to promote competition and strengthen privacy protections for consumers, actions that
The founders of Head Start have always viewed parents as critical partners in their work to educate young children. They also understood that this partnership meant parents should help decide which services would most benefit their families and those in the community. As a result, Head Start created a formal leadership and policymaking role for parents and community members called the Policy Council.
Children are more vulnerable than adults to the effects of cold weather. The Head Start Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center developed these tips to help families and staff keep children safe, healthy, and warm in the winter.
These K-12 appropriate titles can foster a love of reading and help students return to school empowered and inspired.
Education is the cornerstone of success, and this fundamental right must be upheld without compromise.
“If you don’t have the child care in order for people to go to work, they don’t have the income to pay for housing; it’s this vicious cycle,” said Melanie Shaver, superintendent of Hyde County Schools in North Carolina. “So how can we break that cycle at the root cause?” Shaver is leading her district’s attempt to answer that question. Hyde County Schools is now offering universal pre-k to both 3- and 4-year-olds districtwide, at the Ocracoke School on the island and the Mattamuskeet School on the mainland, with the goal of expanding to include early care and learning for children from birth to age 2 in years to come. And the revived Hyde County Education Foundation — chaired by Shaver — is buying two sites to build workforce housing for teachers and other essential workers.
“If you don’t have the child care in order for people to go to work, they don’t have the income to pay for housing; it’s this vicious cycle,” said Melanie Shaver, superintendent of Hyde County Schools in North Carolina. “So how can we break that cycle at the root cause?” Shaver is leading her district’s attempt to answer that question.
SHAPE America (the Society of Health and Physical Educators) serves as the voice for 200,000+ health and physical education professionals across the United States and recognizes the importance of early childhood education. It suggests these activities to help teach families the importance of physical activity for young children. SHAPE America offers a variety of ideas, strategies, information, and resources for parents to use the space within their homes, the materials they have, and their limited time to model and encourage physical activity.
Experts have highlighted research for many years that stresses how the most important part of education success relates to the quality of the teaching in the classroom. RAND reports that “When it comes to student performance on reading and math tests, teachers are estimated to have two to three times the effect of any other school factor, including services, facilities, and even leadership.” Quality teaching matters as much in early childhood education as it does in K-12 classrooms. In fact, the effort to better understand and support early childhood educators is growing.
I’m incredibly proud to lead Minnesota Public Radio (MPR). I’m energized by expanding the circle of people who depend on our news, information, and music programming. Our ‘going deeper’ approach helps the public to bridge gaps and form connections through meaningful community engagement and listening experiences. My professional and learning journeys started with Head Start.
Congratulations, your child is going to kindergarten a year from now! Making the transition to kindergarten is a big event for every child and family. You and your child may feel excited and proud about the next big step. You both may also experience some worry about the unknown and wonder how it will be at a new school.
The school year is in full swing, and LA County Library would like to remind our neighbors of the resources available at your local library to support children, teens, and adults in their educational and personal goals.
Since 1964, the Head Start program has been a lifeline for generations of women and families, providing free, high-quality educational, health, social-emotional, and nutritional services and opening doors to opportunity and economic justice that had long been kept shut. Now, as Head Start approaches its 60th anniversary, it’s a great time to look back on all that the program has achieved — and look forward to what our country could look like if Head Start was strengthened.
Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, covers one in three Californians, including more than 50 percent of the state’s youth. In California, nearly 300,000 youth are coping with depression, and 66 percent of them do not get the help they need, according to Governor Newsom’s Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health.
In 2023, the Oregon legislature launched the Early Literacy Success Initiative to help all students learn to read, as only 46% of students read proficiently by the end of grade 3. To support the initiative, the Children’s Institute (CI) partnered with the Regional Educational Laboratory Northwest (REL Northwest) to compile accessible, evidence-based resources to support this effort and strengthen literacy practices for young children.
Houston, a leading national non-profit organization working to transform the lives of underserved, under-resourced families, has experienced two major natural disasters in recent months: a derecho and then Hurricane Beryl. The executive director, Luz Flores, shared that out of their 18 centers, only six had power. Staff and families were similarly affected, with many lacking basic utilities during a time of an extreme heat warning.
The National Black Child Development Institute is the only national organization focused solely on the unique attributes and needs of Black children, birth through age 8. We exist to fight for the creation of an equitable and just future for Black children and families. We mobilize communities and ignite movements on the strength of Black excellence. NBCDI is engaged in the process of building the world into which Black children deserve to be born. The work of building a future in which Black people exist is ours to design, and we take seriously the charge to lay the bricks and smooth the mortar to implement ideas that will change the world for Black children and families.
For grade-school teachers, keeping up with student slang is a race as old as the teaching profession itself, and one they can never win. Changing as quickly as the weather, the hot slang word or phrase of the moment — the one that’s so lit everyone in the caf is using it — is usually hella dead by the time most adults they know catch up.
Child Care Aware of America (CCAoA) recently published Child Care at a Standstill: Price and Landscape Analysis, an annual report assessing the national, state, and regional trends in child care.
At this time of year, many preschool parents are worrying about whether their child will be ready for kindergarten. What are the things their child should learn? Do they need to make alphabet flash cards? Invest in worksheets so kids can practice math. I talked with kindergarten teachers to find out what they think kids need to know to be kindergarten-ready. You may be surprised: Readiness for school, teachers say, does not mean that your child will have mastered all the kindergarten skills on Day One. Instead, it means that your child will take pleasure in learning how to do things on their own.
