News You Can Use Week of January 26, 2012
Shout Out for Advocacy!
More than 400 members of the Head Start community gathered in Washington, D.C. this week to learn and network--and advocate. Conference participants got to hear six Members of Congress speak at our Hill Breakfast, and many took time to meet with their Senators, Representatives and Congressional staff about the importance of their programs to their districts. This shout out goes to everyone who visited the Hill, and especially the delegation from the National Migrant Seasonal Head Start Association (pictured here) who met with White House representatives to share their experiences with immigration and to advocate for their children and their community.
Join Us in Nashville!
NHSA's 39th Annual Head Start Conference will be in Nashville, Tennessee April 16-20. Here are just some of the exciting features:
- Ready for Success: A School Readiness Goals Summit
- Nature Based Learning & Development series
- Research to Practice Symposium
- Family & Health Service Institutes
- National Home Visiting Forum, and
- Family Child Care Collaboration.
In addition, attend our Celebration of Alumni, National Awards Celebration, Research Luncheon and Public Policy Breakfast. Plus, experience the Technology and Resource Pavillion while you visit hundreds of exhibitors in the Exhibit Hall.
Office of Head Start Seeking Grant Reviewers
The Office of head Start is recruiting grant reviewers who have strong communication skills, analytical skills and organizational and time-management skills and who are able to work independently, collaboratively and in a virtual environment. Reviewers must commit to a minimum of four weeks between spring and fall and will have to read up to 3,000 pages per week to stay on schedule. Apply at www.acfgrantreviewer.com and use reference code OHS-001-2012. Contact reviewer@luxcg.com with any questions.
Survey for Asthma and Allegy Foundation
The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) is conducting a brief anonymous online survey as part of a CDC funded asthma project in order to better understand the role of childcare providers and the children with asthma they serve. We are seeking your professional insights, observations and opinions. Your responses will help guide AAFA in developing asthma education materials appropriate for childcare settings. Once the program has been developed, it will be available for free to Head Start programs. Please click the following link to begin the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WY2F6RB .We encourage you to forward this email freely to all of your childcare professional colleagues – the more responses we get, the better our results! Thank you in advance for taking and sharing our short survey! The deadline for completing this survey will be Friday, February 3, 2012.
NHSA Leaders As Learners Series
Sharpen your negotiation skills! Join the NHSA Leaders As Learners Negotiation Skills Training, March 5th & 6th, 2012, in Atlanta, Georgia! Polish your skills including how to build consensus, negotiate with interested parties and collaborative partners in the field, and promote power sharing in state and regional associations. This training is targeting local, state, regional and national leaders in the Head Start community with priority given to Head Start agency directors and board members and directors of regional associations. Course fees are provided by W. K. Kellogg Foundation. For more information and application form visit our website. Application deadline for this course is February 13, 2012.
Call for Bilingual Assessors and Spanish-speaking Children
Pearson’s Clinical Assessment division is developing an updated version of the Differential Ability Scales–II Spanish Preschool test (DAS-II). It is being designed to assess cognitive abilities that are important to learning. We are nearing the end of our study and need both bilingual examiners and Spanish-speaking children ages 2 years 6 months to 4 years 11 months with developmental delay. We are offering compensation to examiners, examinees, and sites who choose to participate in our project. The test takes approximately 120 minutes and uses such activities as building with blocks, remembering and describing pictures, and early number concepts. Children often enjoy participating in field testing and the examiner will learn to administer a new assessment.
We will provide a test kit and parental consent forms to those examiners who complete the following 3 steps and who are able to test the children needed for our project :
- Complete the DAS–II Spanish Examiner Application (Link can be found at the bottom of this email)
- Examiners must submit candidates within the age groups being collected
- All first time examiners applying to a Spanish project must successfully complete a Spanish screening (reading, writing, and conversational). Please contact me to set up an appointment to complete this requirement. It takes 5-10 minutes and requires you to be near a computer.
Become a Head Start Fellow
Applications for the U.S. Department of Education’s fifth cohort of Teaching Ambassador Fellows opened on January 21st and are scheduled to close on February 22nd, 2012. Since 2008, this highly competitive program has enabled a total of sixty-nine outstanding teachers, each with a record of leadership, strong communication skills, and insights into educational policy based in classroom expertise to work with the Department on a full or part time basis. For more information about the application process, you can visit the program page at www.ed.gov/programs/teacherfellowship or go directly to the applications for the Washington, Classroom, and/or Regional Fellowship on www.usajobs.gov. More information can be found at ED’s Homeroom Blog.
Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors
We are now accepting applications for a second National Facilitators Training for April 15, 16 & 17, Nashville, TN. We are recruiting 10 more teams of two to join our Head Start Abriendo Puertas Network. Click here to review this unique scholarship opportunity. Application deadline is April 16, 2012. For more information contact Siria Rioja, 703-739-7555, srioja@nhsa.org
Have You Read the NHSA Blog Lately?
The NHSA blog is updated regularly with analysis of news and research related to Head Start as well as success stories from parents, staff and alumni. Visit now! You can also stay in touch with NHSA online on facebook and by following us at @NatlHeadStart and @HeadStartWindow on twitter.
Don’t Miss Upcoming Legal Advisory Service Trainings
The Head Start Legal Advisory Service, a collaboration between Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP and the National Head Start Association, has developed key offerings designed with programs like yours in mind. Join Ted Waters and Zoë Beckerman for the following webinars:
(2/01/12) So You Have Monitoring Findings, Now What Do You Do? (3 pm eastern time) Rarely do programs undergo monitoring reviews and come away with no findings. And unfortunately, in this era of additional scrutiny and consequences, every finding counts. We’ve helped many programs over the years respond to monitoring findings. So, what do you do when you receive a monitoring report with deficiencies or non-compliances? How do you break the report down and properly respond? Join us on this webinar to learn:
- How to review your report and clues to look for;
- Tips on how to develop and strengthen your Quality Improvement Plans; and
- How to document and "prove up" your compliance to "clear" your findings.
Who Should Attend: Executive Directors, Head Start Directors, Senior management and staff, but all are welcome.
(2/15/12) Human Resources Lifecycle in Head Start (3 pm eastern time)
HR in Head Start can be very confusing. The regulations require that certain actions need to take place pre-employment; others during the hiring process, and still others while someone is employed by your program. And then what happens if someone's employment needs to be terminated? Getting these elements right matters - not just for proper program operations, but for morale too. In this webinar, we will discuss the Human Resources Lifecycle of the Head Start employment relationship and include:
- Pre-employment requirements, such as recruitment and selection procedures and health exams;
- Hiring process, including steps and tips;
- Elements during employment, such as performance reviews and training/development; and
- Firing, including steps on "how to."
Who Should Attend: Executive Directors, Head Start Directors, Human Resources Director and HR Personnel, but all are welcome.
The Head Start Legal Advisory Service, a collaboration between Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP and the National Head Start Association, has this topic, as well as other new offerings on topics designed with programs like yours in mind. To register or see the full list of this season’s trainings, please go to: http://headstart.peachnewmedia.com/store/provider/provider09.php.