A Historical Study Of The American Head Start Education Project

The Head Start program was designed by the federal government of the United States to ensure that the needs in education and health services of preschool children of low-income families would be met. The goal of this historical comprehensive program was to provide a desirable start in their educational life, so that a strong background for their life development would be established, thus the cycle of poverty could be broken.Head Start creatively integrated the social ecological theory into the preschool education. By focusing on the child-development as a core element, Head Start has established a comprehensive service model which makes preschool education, health care and social development available to the children of low-income families and communities. From its first summer plan in 1965 through the end of the 20th century, on an unprecedented scale, Head Start had become the longest lasting and the most successful program in the history of American early childhood education during its 35 years of practice. It not only promoted the compensation education in the field of early childhood education but the development of the entire early childhood education as well. The Head Start program has served as a preschool education model of high quality and has proved itself a significant program in the history of early childhood education in the United States.The present dissertation studied Head Start in the view of its historical developments. Considering the macro-nature of American society in the development of politics, economy, science and technology, and regarding the main stream of the policy development by the federal government during different historical periods, this study combs and analyzes the birth and development of the Head Start objectively. With an understanding of the policies and aims of the U.S. government, this dissertation expounds the different aims, strategies, achievements and associated problems in various periods during the development of Head Start and summarizes the experiences and lessons that the program went through in a historical view. The analyses of social elements affecting the development of the Head Start will allow suggestions to be made to reform and develop the early childhood education in China.Based on the main points of the Head Start program in its different developmental periods, the dissertation divides the history of the Head Start program into 5 developmental stages which are analyzed and discussed in the first 5 chapters of the dissertation individually. In the sixth chapter, the author makes her evaluation and prospect of Head Start with respect to the potential application of the American Head Start program in the Chinese early childhood education.In the first chapter of the dissertation, the initial stage of Head Start is discussed by introducing the history of early childhood education in dealing with poverty and improving children development in the United States.Except for the initial contents and traits of Head Start, the main goal of the second chapter is to analyze the basic theories and social elements that help the birth of Head Start.The third chapter mainly examines the early development of Head Start-from its first summer plan in 1965 through the end of 1960s. The content in this chapter includes the Federal government guiding policies, the amazing success brought by the rapid development of the program as well as the downsides and future challenges that the program faced for its development.The fourth chapter is mainly about the development of Head Start during the period between the early 1970s and the late 1980s of the 20th century. This period experienced its ups and downs of the program development, but it was a critical period of the reform and innovation of Head Start. During this period, the program actively dealt with the negative effects brought by the Westinghouse Report by enhancing its quality control and expansion of its new strategies, through which Head Start regained its social approval and support, thus becoming the national laboratory of early childhood education.The fifth chapter describes its development in the 90s of the 20th century, during which the quality-oriented developmental features were emphasized. This chapter describes influences of the third Amendments to Head Start Acts, presents the results of the quality evaluation and the development of Head Start Family and Child Experience Survey.Chapter six of the dissertation focuses on the overall evaluation and prospect of the Head Start by reviewing its historical significance and the driving factorial elements for its future development. This chapter summarizes the discussion of the success and weakness of the Head Start program, predicts the general developmental trend in the 21st century. Based on what we have learned from the Head Start program, with the national goal of establishing a harmonious society in mind, general suggestions were made for the reform and development of early childhood education in China.