Good Start, Grow Smart
Initiative
In his 2002 State of the Union Address,
President George W. Bush outlined the next
critical step in education reform—the
need to prepare children to read and succeed
in school with improved Head Start and early
childhood development programs. The President's
call is built upon themes developed at the
2001 First Lady's Summit on Early Childhood
Cognitive Development.
Early childhood, which is the period in
a child's life from birth through age 5,
is a critical time for children to develop
the physical, emotional, social, and cognitive
skills they will need for the rest of their
lives. These children receive care in a wide
variety of settings. While 38 percent receive
care solely from their parents, the remaining
62 percent receive care through a variety
of arrangements, including care by nonparental
relatives, by non relatives, and by center-based
programs, including Head Start.
President Bush believes that all children
must begin school with an equal chance at
achievement so no child is left behind. The
Bush Administration has proposed a new early
childhood initiative Good
Start, Grow Smart to help states and
local communities strengthen early learning
for young children. This will ensure that
young children have the skills they will
need to start school ready to learn.
The President's Good Start, Grow Smart initiative
addresses three major areas:
- Strengthening Head Start: Through
the Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS), the administration will develop
a new accountability system for Head Start
to ensure that every Head Start center
assesses standards of learning in early
literacy, language, and numeracy skills.
HHS will also implement a national training
program with the goal of teaching the nearly
50,000 Head Start teachers early literacy
teaching techniques.
- Partnering with states to improve
early childhood education: The
administration proposes a stronger federal-state
partnership in the delivery of quality
early childhood programs. This new approach
will ask states to develop quality criteria
for early childhood education, including
voluntary guidelines on pre-reading and
language skills activities that align
with State K-12 standards. To help states
meet these criteria, they will have more
flexibility with federal child care funds.
- Providing information to teachers,
caregivers and parents: To close
the gap between the best research and
current practices in early childhood
education, the Department of Education
will establish a range of partnerships
as part of a broad public awareness campaign
targeted toward parents, early childhood
educators, child care providers, and
other interested parties. To assist this
effort, the Bush Administration supports
an unprecedented $45 million research
collaborative between the National Institute
of Child Health and Human Development
and the Department of Education to identify
effective pre-reading and language curricula
and teaching strategies.
NIFA works with the Head Start and Child
Care Bureaus at the Department of Health
and Human Services, other federal agencies,
private organizations, and the Land-Grant
University System to bring resources and
expertise to this important Presidential
Initiative.
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