A High Quality Tradition

ABCD Head Start offers the winning combination of federal oversight and local expertise.

Because we are funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services through the Administration of Children and Families, all of our programs are rigorously reviewed every three years to ensure that we continue to meet the government's standards. These reviews adhere to higher standards than the state's licensing requirements. Over the past four decades, the federal government has invested billions of dollars in Head Start's programming, allowing us to become a leader in assessing child outcomes, designing early childhood education curriculums, overseeing childhood education planning, and helping us to give our children the best head start in life that we can. As the national frontrunner in early childhood education for nearly half a decade, our hands-on experience in the field of early childhood development has allowed us to develop many of the standards and practices now accepted nationally.

And, because we are administered locally through ABCD, we also offer the advantages of specifically targeted programming that can quickly respond to the emerging needs of the people living in the communities we serve. Since it was incorporated in 1962, ABCD has been designated Boston's official antipoverty agency. ABCD's service model focuses on prevention, rather than crisis management, and on building on individual and community strengths.

Setting the Bar for Early Childhood Development

In our more than four decades as experts in the field of early childhood development, we have innovated and implemented many programming and curriculum tools. Among these is the Outcome Measurement gauge, which allows us to report where children were when they entered the program, and illustrate what they accomplished by the time they left the program.

In 2001, ABCD Head Start initiated the Developmental Assessment System as a tool to systematically observe and assess children for their individual needs and to establish continuous program improvement by reviewing outcome measurements throughout the year. Data gained through outcome measurement is vitally important for understanding what is needed for a child or group of children, in terms of curriculum, environment, and caregiver attention. In the classroom, outcome measurement enables us to constantly improve the effectiveness of our programs for the benefit of the children and families we serve. It is also useful for providing staff with appropriate professional development opportunities and informing parents about how their child is doing. This information gathered also allows us to communicate with funders, regulators, and the general public about the quality of our programs.

A History of Excellence in Early Childhood Development

The Office of Economic Opportunity launched Project Head Start in 1965 as an eight-week summer program designed to help break the cycle of poverty by providing preschool children of low-income families with a comprehensive program to meet the following needs:

• Emotional
• Social
• Health
• Nutritional
• Psychological.

By now a well-established program with a strong impact on communities and early childhood programs across the country, Head Start remains innovative thanks to its local administration through community-based non-profit organizations and school systems. ABCD celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2006 and maintains its commitment to Boston's low-income children and families.