Critical Perspectives on Project Head Start: Revisioning the Hope and Challenge

Considers how Project Head Start, the federally funded preschool program, has operated (sometimes effectively and comfortably, sometimes not) with families, in communities, and with other institutions. An important look at the intersections of poverty, social programs, and education. This book offers critical perspectives on the complex dynamics of politics, class, gender, power, race, and ethnicity in Project Head Start, past and present. Moving beyond the literature on Head Start's effects on children's achievement, this volume considers how the program has operated-sometimes effectively and comfortably, sometimes not-with families, in communities, and with other institutions. Contributors address historical background, parent involvement and governance, cultural diversity, and relationships with other institutions. The research reported is rich with the voices of parents, community members, and staff, and is complemented by first-person chapters written by participants themselves. Head Start's appeal and its reputation for success are both championed and critically questioned in this book, with an eye toward where Head Start might be going, where it should be going, and how we can better understand poverty, social programs, and education.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1. A Lost Legacy: Head Start's Origins in Community Action Kathryn R. Kuntz 2. The Origins of Head Start and the Two Versions of Parent Involvement: How Much Parent Participation in Early Childhood Programs and Services for Poor Children? Polly Greenberg 3. Beyond Busywork: Crafting a Powerful Role for Low-Income Mothers in Schools or Sustaining Inequalities? Linda Spatic, Laurel Parrott, Amy Dillon, and Kate Conrad 4. Parent Involvement in a Rural Head Start and the Reproduction of Class Roslyn Arlin Mickelson and Mary Trotter Klenz 5. Head Start Bilingual and Multicultural Program Services Patricia A. Hamilton, Katherine Hayes, and Henry M. Doan 6. High/Scope in Head Start Programs Serving Southeast Asian Immigrant and Refugee Children and Their Families: Lessons from an Ethnographic Study Eden Innoway-Ronnie 7. Family Literacy Informing Head Start: Lessons from Hmong and Latino Families Elizabeth P. Quintero 8. Reform and Empowerment: Rural Mothers and Head Start Lynda J. Ames and Jeanne Ellsworth 9. More Than a Job: Reflections of a Former Head Start Staff Member Susan W. Geddes 10. Personal Growth in Head Start Wendy L. Kirby 11. Developmentalism Meets Standardized Testing: Do Low-Income Children Lose? Linda Spatig, Robert Bickel, Laurel Parrott, Amy Dillon, and Kate Conrad 12. A Bumpy Transition from Head Start to Public School: Issues of Philosophical and Managerial Continuity within the Administrative Structure of One School System Stacey Neuharth-Pritchett and Panayota Y. Mantzicopoulos 13. Inspiring Delusions: Reflections on Head Start's Enduring Popularity Jeanne Ellsworth 14. Concluding Thoughts: Hope and Challenge: Head Start Past, Present, Future Jeanne Ellsworth and Lynda J. Ames Contributors Index