It is with great excitement that I pen my first blog post as MCC’s newly appointed Director of EHS. And what a time to take up this honor – during Head Start Awareness Month, a time set aside to recognize the strides that Head Start and EHS programs across the country have taken in educating, shaping communities, and preparing children from low income families for school.
Our celebration of Head Start Awareness Month culminated in a Family Appreciation Day – where families from our sites in South Philadelphia, Norristown and Pottstown attended Mermaid Lake in Blue Bell, PA. They enjoyed food, family fun and an awards ceremony honoring parents who have made an extraordinary commitment to MCC, EHS and their child’s education.
It was an inspiration to meet our dedicated EHS parents. With a consistent emphasis on parent engagement, we provide opportunities for parents to volunteer, receive free trainings and the chance to take a governance role at MCC through the Parent Policy Council. Many of our parents have grasped these opportunities by becoming site volunteers, who give their time to read and play with children, to linguists who help us translate our materials into other languages, to members of our Policy Council and parent committees who help us improve our program.
While we celebrate parent involvement in the program, we also support parents in their role as their children’s first teachers. Those who attended the Family Appreciation Day were invited to take part in a “story corner”, where they were encouraged to read their favorite children’s books aloud to their kids. Parents joined in wholeheartedly, reading aloud from the books that were voted as their favorites, including Clifford the Big Red Dog and Goodnight Moon, as well as moving and inspiring books penned and donated by MCC supporters, Will and Jada Smith. The importance of reading to children can’t be overstated. Researchers frequently refer to the “language gap” – a finding from a groundbreaking study which showed by age 3, children from wealthiest families have heard 30 million more words than children from the poorest. This translates that children from low-income families have slower vocabulary development, decreased language comprehension, and an overall smaller vocabulary size.
A 2013 report by The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showed that 77% of low-income elementary students in Pennsylvania do not read at grade level. Such differences only increase as children ascend through school, leading to decreased high school and college graduates. Through our emphasis on working with parents so they can become their children’s first teachers, and providing children with a curriculum that ensures they are ready for school, EHS is a critical partner in closing the language gap.
Through the emphasis on cooperation between parents and Advocates or teachers, EHS really works. For example, last year 88% of enrolled children demonstrated improved communication, language and emergent literary skills, 90% demonstrated improved general cognitive skills and 97% demonstrated improved and positive approaches toward learning and increased attention skills. If that’s not cause for celebration, then I don’t know what is!
