DeLauro Urges More Head Start Mentors
DeLauro Urges More Head Start Mentors
- Will Offer Amendment to the School Readiness Act -
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn.-3) will today offer an amendment to The School Readiness Act to allow Head Start centers to partner with an institution of higher education or a community-based organization to recruit and train college students to serve as mentors to preschool children. The amendment would provide additional resources to Head Start teachers in the classroom.
"Head Start is unquestionably the most effective early childhood development program ever developed," said DeLauro. "With this amendment, we are simply seeking to supplement the remarkable work of our Head Start teachers in a way that allows for children to learn at their optimum capacity - that allows Head Start teachers to make the greatest impact possible."
For all of Head Start's success, even the best teachers struggle with overwhelming class sizes - particularly with young children. And Head Start's 10-to-1 ratio of students to teachers in the classroom presents clear challenges in helping Head Start children gain the cognitive skills other children have.
DeLauro's amendment would not replace the specialized work of Head Start teachers. Nor would anything in this amendment require local Head Start centers to offer mentoring programs. Like the underlying bill, her amendment would preserve the local option. Head Start grantees would have the choice whether or not to start a mentoring program for head start children.
"The benefits of mentoring are mutual," said DeLauro. "The young college student who is giving of his or her time to help a child learn to read also learns what it means to give back to communities. They learn what it means to make a difference and participate in the shaping of a child's future."
Several Head Start mentoring programs are already underway. One program deploys 2,100 college students who devote 15 hours per week during the school year to mentor Head Start students. A study of that program found the one-to-one reading instruction by those mentors helped narrow language and literacy gaps - with gains in the critical areas of writing, vocabulary, listening, and others.
http://www.house.gov/delauro/press/2005/September/head_start_mentors_09_22_05.html