Critical Perspectives on Project Head Start: Revisioning the Hope and Challenge(SUNY series, Youth Social Services, Schooling, and Public Policy)

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.

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

About the Author :
Jeanne Ellsworth is Associate Professor, Center for Educational Studies and Services and Lynda J. Ames is Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, both at Plattsburgh State University of New York. Their previous book is Women Reformed, Women Empowered: Rural Mothers and the Endangered Promise of Head Start.

Review :
"The book shows how Head Start has changed from a social action movement into an 'education' program for parents, usually mothers, and children. It provides important insights into the inner workings of programs, illuminating both ways in which programs can serve-and can fail to serve-families from diverse backgrounds. Literally thousands of studies have been done on Head Start, but the majority are in the same mode. This book offers something new. The authors are to be commended for addressing issues close to the ground, with candor, compassion, and concern. They show us the human face of Head Start in all its diversity, complexity, and contradiction." - Sally Lubeck, The University of Michigan "The book deconstructs aspects of Head Start which have needed a closer examination for some time-it moves the discourse about Head Start from an essentializing, common-sense version of a popular and monolithic federal anti-poverty program to a discourse which is contradiction-ridden and which begins to unravel some of the complexities of the enactment of this popular program." - Beth Blue Swadener, Kent State University