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An Analysis Of The Readiness Perceptions Of Head Start Parents, Teachers, And Center Leaders In Early Childhood Education, Julie K. Desmangles

All Dissertations

The perceptions that parents, teachers, and early childhood education leaders have about school readiness, and how these individuals promote readiness in children, influences how prepared children are to enter the school setting. In this study, I drew upon an ecological systems model to examine how parents, teachers, and early childhood school leaders perceive and promote school readiness. In this study, I also examined the strategies that early childhood education leaders' used to build relationships with families and community members, and to foster parent involvement. I used semi-structured interviews to collect data from 11 participants in three Head Start Centers in …

Creating A More Proficient Food Process Allowing More Teaching Time For Children, Laura P. Pacheco

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Teachers of the Monterey County Office of Education Early Head Start and Head Start programs are having hard time to carrying out the process of separating food for children at their centers. Since, it is interfering with their teaching time, they are asking to find a solution to resolve this problem because they only have four hours to fulfill the Head Start program requirements. This report explains the process of a pilot project that was implemented in one of the Head Start centers during the months of April and May. This project consisted in taking food to centers already separated, …

Annual Report On The Head Start Family Financial Capability Program: 2015–2016, Jami Curley, Anne S. Robertson

Center for Social Development Research

This report presents results from a mixed-methods evaluation of the third year of implementation of a financial-capability program with Head Start families in the St. Louis, Missouri, metropolitan area: The Head Start Family Financial Capability (HSFFC) Program. The program combined savings incentives, budget and credit counseling, and one-on-one coaching with 10 hours of financial education on debt management, banking, budgeting, saving, and credit. The results reported here come from analyses of data on 339 adult program participants from Head Start families, 107 Head Start staff who participated in the program, and administrators and staff implementing the program at Head Start …

Examining An Executive Functioning And Bilingual Advantage Among Latino Dll Children In Head Start: A Strength-Based Approach, Lisa J. White

Open Access Dissertations

Young Spanish-speaking Latinos in the U.S., most of whom are from low-income backgrounds, perform below their English-speaking peers at kindergarten entry. This achievement gap is concerning considering the rising number of Latino children in the U.S. living in poverty. Despite this risk, a large body of research highlights the positive effects of learning two languages. Latino DLLs attending Head Start, compared to their monolingual peers, were recently found to have higher executive functioning (EF), a set of domain-general cognitive skills that robustly predict academic achievement. This emerging evidence is encouraging, however, there is still a lack of research on how …

Preschool Teacher Knowledge And Skills: Phonemic Awareness And Instruction, Cecilia Anne Billow

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The extent of phonemic awareness knowledge and skills early childhood teachers bring to beginning literacy instruction lays the foundation upon which reading success is built for preschool children in their care. A significant number of preschool children receive their first literacy instruction in community-based or Head Start preschools. Phonemes are the individual sounds that make up spoken words and developing the ability to attend to the sounds that letters represent is the first step in learning to read. No published studies were found assessing the ability of teachers in these two settings to provide effective instruction in phonemic awareness.

The …

The Consistency Of Teacher Ratings On The Behavior Assessment System For Children-3 And The Child Behavior Checklist 1.5-5, Carly A. Rentsch

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The assessment of children’s social-emotional skills, especially in the preschool years, is essential, as it yields early identification of problems and allows for appropriate interventions to be tried. School psychologists and other professionals use a variety of assessment methods (e.g., observations, interviews, behavior rating scales) to determine a child’s social-emotional abilities. Two popular behavior rating scales used frequently by professionals are the Behavior Assessment System for Children-Third Edition (BASC-3) and the Child Behavior Checklist 1.5-5 (CBCL 1.5-5). The current study examines the consistency of results from the two instruments. Fifty-six Head Start teachers from two regions of the country completed …

Head Start Preschool Parent-Teacher Engagement And The Parent’S Transition To Kindergarten, Nicole Gagnon – Arsenault

M.S.Ed. in Educational Leadership Research Projects

This mixed-method study seeks to better understand the relationships that Head Start preschool teachers have with parents and how those relationships impact a parent’s transition to a public school when their child enters kindergarten. Findings revealed that parents have a deep connection to their child’s Head Start teacher, feel informed and empowered to advocate for their child’s needs. Interviews revealed that parents do not feel as connected to their child’s education in the public school. Recommendations for educators include creating more opportunities for parents to connect to the public school during the supportive Head Start school year.

Leadership Practices Supporting Retention In Head Start Nonprofit Organizations, Nannette Brown Phillips

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Head Start, the largest early childhood organization in the United States, was federally mandated to employ bachelor degreed operational employees, with no additional funds. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore effective strategies that successful leaders of Head Start Nonprofit Organizations use to retain operational employees. The population of this study included 5 Head Start CEOs/Program Directors in 5 Head Start nonprofit organizations in Alabama who successfully retained operational employees in their organization. Kouzes and Posner's transformational leadership theory provided a conceptual framework for this study. Data were collected via telephone interviews and employee records from the …

Examining The Barriers To The Continuing Education Of Early Childhood Teacher Assistants, Colleen Louise Wright

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 required teacher assistants (TAs) to obtain their child development associate (CDA) credential by September of 2015. TAs who had not obtained their CDA within the required timeframe were either demoted or terminated from their positions. However, with the increase of working parents, the need for quality early childhood education has risen. In this project study, the barriers TAs confront in regards to their decision to continue their schooling to obtain a CDA credential were examined, as were the factors that deterred or prevented them from enrolling in or completing a …

Child Temperamental Regulation And Classroom Quality In Head Start: Considering The Role Of Cumulative Economic Risk, Kathleen Moritz Rudasill, Leslie R. Hawley, Jennifer Locasale-Crouch, Eric S. Buhs

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

There is growing recognition that cumulative economic risk places children at higher risk for depressed academic competencies (Crosnoe & Cooper, 2010; NCCP, 2008; Sameroff, 2000). Yet, children’s temperamental regulation and the quality of the early childhood classroom environment have been associated with better academic skills. This study is an examination of prekindergarten classroom quality (instructional support, emotional support, organization) as a moderator between temperamental regulation and early math and literacy skills for children at varying levels of cumulative economic risk. The sample includes children enrolled in Head Start programs drawn from the FACES 2009 study. Three main findings emerged. First, …

Parental Health, Parenting Behavior And Externalizing Behavior Problems Among Low-Income African American Preschool Children, Cassandra Lynn Esposito

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Externalizing behavior problems are highly prevalent in the preschool years. These behaviors are particularly common and problematic among children who are from low-income, minority backgrounds. There is evidence in the literature that describes parental health and parenting problems as risk factors for child externalizing behavior problems. The primary objective of this study was to better understand the relationship between parental health factors, parenting, and child behavior problems. Utilizing data from a low-income African American population, this study examined whether observed measures of parenting behaviors mediated the relationship between measures of parental health (e.g., depression, stress, and BMI) and child externalizing …

The Politics Of Head Start, The Most Popular Survivor Of The War On Poverty, Grace Lee

CMC Senior Theses

Head Start began in 1965 as a part of the War on Poverty led by President Lyndon B. Johnson. After more than 50 years, it has remained as one of the most popular government social programs with support from across the political spectrum. However, there have been mixed results regarding the effectiveness of Head Start in participants' educational gains. Despite the mixed research, Head Start has continued to receive support by the public and both political parties throughout the decades. While there are disagreements on reforms to be made to Head Start, there has been increasing agreement around making providers …

“Head Start Works,” But Why? Understanding The Persistence Of An American Welfare Program, Leah Rich-Awkward

Honors Papers

Head Start, a federally-funded preschool program for low-income children which also provides social services to parents, has persisted since its founding in the 1960s. The program has also received consistent public support since its implementation. Head Start’s popularity makes it unique in comparison to other welfare programs in the country. The United States’ welfare state is weak and underfunded when compared to other countries, the US lacks a comprehensive national welfare system, and the existing system exacerbates inequalities based on gender and race.

Despite the lack of support for welfare services, Head Start continues to serve children and families across …

Engaging Parents To Promote Children’S Nutrition And Health: Providers’ Barriers And Strategies In Head Start And Child Care Centers, Dipti A. Dev, Courtney Byrd-Williams, Samantha Ramsay, Brent A. Mcbride, Deepa Srivastava, Ashleigh L. Murriel, Chrisa Arcan, Anna M. Adachi-Mejia

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Purpose: Using the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics benchmarks as a framework, this study examined childcare providers’ (Head Start [HS], Child and Adult Care Food Program [CACFP] funded, and non-CACFP) perspectives regarding communicating with parents about nutrition to promote children’s health.

Design: Qualitative.

Setting: State-licensed center-based childcare programs.

Participants: Full-time childcare providers (n ¼ 18) caring for children 2 to 5 years old from varying childcare contexts (HS, CACFP funded, and non-CACFP), race, education, and years of experience.

Methods: In-person interviews using semi-structured interview protocol until saturation were achieved. Thematic analysis was conducted.

Results: Two overarching themes were barriers and …