Head Start program

It’s that time of year again. Like baby birds leaving the nest, approximately 320,000 Head Start preschoolers will fly away to start the next chapter in their young lives. As Head Start teachers and administrators, we can’t help but ask, “Are they ready?” “Did we do everything we could to prepare them?” “Is the school…

In a recent blog this past January, we posed the question: What’s the big deal about diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) in Head Start programs? While you have likely heard about DEIB before, you might think that it’s only something done by corporations with sprawling HR departments or government agencies in large marble buildings.…

If you only read one of The Gravely Group’s blogs each year, our annual Year in Review should be it. Each year, we do a recap of all the articles we put out throughout the year, as well as give a few other highlights from our trainings and travels. After nearly three years of uncertainty,…

This blog was provided by Dr. Nermeen Dashoush, Chief Learning Officer at MarcoPolo Learning and Clinical Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at BU Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. The Gravely Group recently partnered with MarcoPolo Learning on a free webinar titled “How Can Technology Provide Greater Access for Families?” A big part…

A month ago, Head Start released a memo stating that families receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits are now categorically eligible for Head Start. What that means is that if families can provide documentation of their eligibility for SNAP benefits, they are automatically eligible to be enrolled in Head Start. They do not need…

Every year, Black History Month is dedicated to recognizing and honoring the contributions that black Americans have made to American history. It was first recognized as a national educational initiative by Gerald Ford in 1976. In researching for this blog, I myself learned some things about the history of Black History Month and how it…

We here at The Gravely Group recently started piloting a new training on the Multicultural Principles for Early Childhood Leaders. We’ve been using this document for years, incorporating its lessons into many of our trainings, such as on ERSEA and Family Engagement. But we recently decided to review it again in its entirety after our…

We’ll be honest. If you had asked us during our last Year in Review blog if we’d still be talking about COVID-19 affecting our day to day lives, we’d have said, “I sure hope not!” In December 2020 when we were writing it, the vaccines had just become available for those at highest risk and…

This past June, we wrote a blog outlining Head Start’s expectations for programs in the 2021-2022 school year. In it, we explained how the Office of Head Start (OHS) is expecting all programs to work towards full in-person enrollment for this program year. We explained that while OHS had originally supported virtual and remote services…

This is the fourth and final blog in our series on the OHS publication Supporting School Readiness and Success of Young African American Boys Project. In our first three blogs, we talked about the origins of the project, defined the culturally responsive lens, and talked about why it focuses on African American boys in the…