Politics, Government, and Early Childhood Curriculum
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Trends in early childhood curriculum can be significantly affected by public policy and government intervention, innovations in technology and media, and the infrastructure of teacher education programs. Early childhood professionals need a solid grounding and awareness of the context in which they will be working, as any of these factors has the potential to significantly impact their professional lives.
Policy and its impact on early childhood curriculum are driven in large part by politics, and support for early childhood education can be inconsistent. Today, the adoption and implementation of early learning standards, accountability systems, and funding mechanisms are the government initiatives that most affect curriculum.
Head Start
The national Head Start program was launched in 1964 under the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Its primary goal was to help reduce or eliminate the effects of poverty by providing comprehensive support and education to young children and their families.
Today Head Start early childhood preschool programsand the companion Early Head Start program for infants, toddlers, and pregnant women that was authorized in 1994serve close to a million at-risk American children annually. Head Start must be reauthorized every five years by the U.S. Congress. Each time the legislation comes up for review, new rules can be applied that affect the way in which Head Start programs select, implement, and evaluate curricula for use in Head Start classrooms.