Children's Programs
Head Start and Early Head Start prepare children for kindergarten and their academic future. As stated in a letter to our Head Start program from Knox Elementary Kindergarten Teachers, “children who have graduated from Head Start have shown a strong foundation upon entering kindergarten. Former Head Start students show understanding of alphabet knowledge, story comprehension, book knowledge, and listening skills.”
To provide the type of educational preparation that kindergarten teachers expect and appreciate, our program collects and analyzes child outcome date three times per year. The data is used to individualize instruction and to monitor progress of learning objectives. A comparative analysis of approximately 17,000 Head Start children reported children enrolled in Marshall-Starke Head Start surpassed state and national averages of other Head Start children in the areas of Math, Motor Development, Language, Science, Social and Emotional Development, and Creative Arts.
The role of parents in their child’s education cannot be understated. Parents may access the online Parent Center, a feature of the Galileo E-Curriculum, the program’s curriculum. The online Parent Center allowed parents access to up-to-date information about their child’s learning and classroom experiences. The Parent Center generated three individualized reports to inform parents about what their child has learned at Head Start and about their child’s readiness to learn new capabilities in a given developmental area. The program involved parents in assessing their children’s progress by reporting evidence of their child’s capabilities. The Parent Center made it easy for parents and teachers to communicate via email about children’s progress and gave parents activities to use with their children at home.
Children's Services Highlights
Collaborated with the Healthy Coalition of Marshall County to conduct a community health fair.
50% of Head Start teachers have a Bachelors Degree in Early Childhood Education or the equivalent as defined by federal regulations.
100% of Teacher Assistants possess either a CDA or an Associate Degree.
With the assistance of American Recovery & Reinvestment Act Funds, installed web cams in all Head Start classrooms to facilitate on-going classroom observations to promote compliance with the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS)
Offered to parents eight week training on Raising a Thinking Child, to learn a way to communicate with their children using special dialoguing techniques for problem solving.
Supported a parent Read to Me campaign encouraging reading a story together on a daily basis. Parents reported 250,000 hours of reading together time. Program staff and parents were trained in the I am Moving, I am Learning program. The program addresses the prevention of childhood obesity.
The Policy Council established an exercise class for Head Start/Early Head Start parents with donated equipment and the purchase of a stationary bike with money from the Parent Activity Fund.
The results of the most recent federal triennial review of an estimated 1400 federal regulations, standards, and policies mandating operations reported two minor findings; one addressing the timeliness of fiscal reporting, and the other pertaining to the methodology used for governance training. A plan of correction was submitted and approved.
Accomplishments
Statistics and Demographics