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Head Start Works Better

Innovation - Reform and Accountability

Innovation - Head Start's Best Kept Secret!

Head Start programs have always excelled at being part of communities - really understanding where they’re working and who they’re working with. Innovation in Head Start emerges in the quietly effective ways programs adapt to the specific local needs of a community. In some places this means finding ways to support families dealing with incarceration or homelessness or hunger; in others it means finding ways to transport teen parents to school or make sure parents can drop off their children before sunrise in order to work in the fields.

"We use technology to reduce travel time and related costs. Our Policy Council, Board of Directors and staff attend meetings and trainings via web-based video onferencing."

Innovation goes beyond any one practice to an attitude: as communities change, programs change to meet them no matter what it takes. To those within Head Start and Early Head Start, these may not even seem like innovations - it’s simply what their mission requires. But to the rest of the educational community, this work represents a remarkable commitment to meeting children and families exactly where they are.

Two examples:

In an innovative partnership in Pennsylvania involving a Head Start program, a school district, a foundation and local businesses and community partners, an ailing schoool system was revitalized from the ground up. A formal evaluation of the partnership documented measurable long-term effects through the fourth grade.

Collaboration between Capital Area Head Start and the Harrisburg School District

A Head Start and Early Head Start program in Virginia pulled together a variety of local resources, such as health care providers and the school district, as well as state resources such as the Cooperative Extension and the Department of Child and Family Services to provide a unique and highly effective family engagement strategy.

Family Engagement and The Campagna Center

"We work in conjunction with all of our local LEA's and community support partners to develop a matrix of what each partner will provide to the partnership. We combine children and resources to develop a program that is seamless for all of the participants, which include HS eligible as well as all other children in the community."

Efficiency: Innovative Responses to Fiscal Pressure

In the Head Start community, budgets are be tight and every dollar must go further than ever before. For many programs, this is especialy daunting because budgets are already tight, and dollars never seem to go far enough. One answer is to make the agonizing decision to cut children and families--but it’s not the only answer. Programs across the country have found some new ways to trim their budgets without cutting quality.

Here, we present four case studies of programs in a wide range of settings that provide a range of ideas and models that should provide much food for thought for other programs struggling with the budget crunch. Download the Case Studies.