Download or read book Critical Perspectives on Project Head Start written by Jeanne Ellsworth and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1998-09-11 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers critical perspectives on the complex dynamics of politics, class, gender, power, race, and ethnicity in Project Head Start, past and present. Moving beyond the literature on Head Start's effects on children's achievement, this volume considers how the program has operated—sometimes effectively and comfortably, sometimes not—with families, in communities, and with other institutions. Contributors address historical background, parent involvement and governance, cultural diversity, and relationships with other institutions. The research reported is rich with the voices of parents, community members, and staff, and is complemented by first-person chapters written by participants themselves. Head Start's appeal and its reputation for success are both championed and critically questioned in this book, with an eye toward where Head Start might be going, where it should be going, and how we can better understand poverty, social programs, and education.