January 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson, State of the Union speech, is where it all started. Aiming to help poverty children with preschool, Johnson announced the start of Head Start. Poverty research, at the time, indicated that these children could be the key to breaking the poverty cycle. Project Head Start started as an eight-week summer program. The final product was designed to help children of low-income families meet social, emotional, health, and nutritional needs. Over the years, Head Start has evolved in many ways. It was moved from the Office of Economic Opportunity to the Office of Child Development in 1969. In 1977, Head Start started its path down the bilingual and bicultural road. Twenty-one states started to see the effects of bilingualism at this time. With continuing growth, Head Start started
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I spoke over the phone with the director, Gale Mickey, after some introduction and small talk we discussed the Head Start Act. She explained that the Head Start Act is really just Head Start. The Act as a whole, created Head Start, and has had updates over the years. These updates are necessary for the changes that the program has faced. “After the Improvement Act was signed, the qualifications for our staff was increased. This added more training and prerequisites for them. We saw changes in the way we were funded also. Grants became five year grants. These grants made it that we had to fill somewhere around 35 percent of our spots with low income families.” (Mickey, 2016) I was amazed how much the bill effected Head Starts at the local level. I asked Gayle about her thought on the removal of the NRS. “Oh boy, that was pitiful!” She was not a fan of the NRS, she said that it really stressed her staff, the children and her. “It wasn’t developmentally appropriate, actually it was harmful.” Though the President at the time didn’t agree, this was a step forward for Head
I spoke over the phone with the director, Gale Mickey, after some introduction and small talk we discussed the Head Start Act. She explained that the Head Start Act is really just Head Start. The Act as a whole, created Head Start, and has had updates over the years. These updates are necessary for the changes that the program has faced. “After the Improvement Act was signed, the qualifications for our staff was increased. This added more training and prerequisites for them. We saw changes in the way we were funded also. Grants became five year grants. These grants made it that we had to fill somewhere around 35 percent of our spots with low income families.” (Mickey, 2016) I was amazed how much the bill effected Head Starts at the local level. I asked Gayle about her thought on the removal of the NRS. “Oh boy, that was pitiful!” She was not a fan of the NRS, she said that it really stressed her staff, the children and her. “It wasn’t developmentally appropriate, actually it was harmful.” Though the President at the time didn’t agree, this was a step forward for Head