Cornerstone for Early School Success: Head Start From 2Gen to AI

Because of its comprehensive, whole-child, whole-family approach, its commitment to meeting high performance standards, and its vast scale that extends into communities across the country, Head Start represents a vital partner and resource for local funders and stakeholders seeking to promote children’s early school success.

In this December 10, 2020 GLR Learning Tuesdays Partner webinar, Yasmina Vinci of the National Head Start Association provided an overview of Head Start, its nationwide reach and its comprehensive, 2Gen approach. She also discussed the ways in which Head Start is embracing innovation — including virtual/augmented reality, big data and artificial intelligence, process innovation, social psychology and more — to support early school success. Through its HeadStarter Network, NHSA is engaging a broad range of partners in identifying new approaches to old and emerging challenges, including redefining parent engagement in the 21st century and finding new credentialing methods for the early learning workforce. Vinci also described the various ways in which PNC Bank, a corporate funder, is providing funding and volunteer support to Head Start in many of the communities where it operates.

Jennifer Grassham of the JF Maddox Foundation moderated a conversation with two other local funders — Gladys Montes of United Way Miami-Dade and Mary Walachy of the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation — as they shared the ways in which they were working with Head Start. Both described their efforts to launch an Educare Center, serving children enrolled in Head Start and Early Head Start and building the capacity of early learning providers in their community to deliver quality care. Miami-Dade’s Center for Excellence in Early Education opened in 2007, achieving demonstrated progress in closing the achievement gap and utilizing Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships to enhance services and supports. Building on its long and successful history of supporting birth through third-grade literacy in Springfield/Hampden County, Mass., the Davis Foundation helped spearhead a local effort resulting in the planned opening of an Educare center in January 2020.