Home > News & Policies > Policies in Focus

Email This Page

President Announces Early Childhood Initiative

President Bush’s early childhood initiative will help states and local communities to overcome these obstacles and strengthen early learning for young children by:

• Strengthening Head Start: The President has directed the Department of Health and Human Services to implement a new accountability system to ensure that every Head Start center assesses standards of learning in early literacy, language and numeracy skills. HHS will implement a national training project with the goal of training all of the nearly 50,000 Head Start teachers this year in the best pre-reading and language teaching techniques for young children.
• Partnering with States to Improve Early Childhood Education: To ensure that pre-school activities are aligned with state education goals, the President’s plan asks States to develop quality criteria for early childhood education, including optional guidelines on pre-reading and language skills activities for pre-school age children ages that align with State K-12 standards. To help states meet these criteria, the President’s plan gives states more flexibility with their federal child care funds.
• Providing Information to Teachers, Caregivers and Parents: In order to close the gap between the best research and current practices in early childhood education, the Department of Education will implement a broad public awareness campaign targeted toward parents, early childhood educators, childcare providers, and other interested parties. Additionally, the President announced an unprecedented $45 million collaborative research initiative between the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Department of Education to identify effective early literacy programs and teaching strategies.

Email This Page