Flint Area Head Start Programs Expand as 3rd Anniversary of Water Tap Switch Nears Michigan Radio (April 23, 2017) -- This week, the city of Flint will mark the third anniversary of its ill-fated drinking water switch. The switch to the Flint River was the first in a series of decisions that created the water crisis. Since then, many different approaches have been taken to mitigate the effects of lead-tainted drinking water on the roughly 100,000 people who call Flint home. There has been a…

Attend MHSA's Spring Assembly in Mt. Pleasant, May 4-5, 2017 (April 7, 2017) Mt. Pleasant, MI – Looking for a fresh start this spring? A chance to recharge up your professional life after the dull winter season?  Look no further than MHSA’s Spring Assembly, a two-day powerpack of professional development coming to Mt. Pleasant on May 4-5, 2017. Keynote speaker Cheryl Priest, an associate professor at Central Michigan University, will kick things off with a presentation on inspired leadership…

EDUCATION WEEK (March 29, 2017) -- When the Trump administration released its budget blueprint earlier this month, it noted that early care and education ranked among its "highest priorities." But the federal preschool program Head Start was a notable omission in the few pages devoted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Head Start. A complete budget proposal is due from the administration in May. And Congress, which controls the federal purse strings, often…

GRAND RAPIDS, MI (MLive.com)-- Early childhood education programs in Grand Rapids and Muskegon will together receive $4.6 million in federal funding. The Department of Health and Human Services awarded $1.95 million to the Grand Rapids Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative to support its Early Head Start Child Care Partnership program, and $2.7 million to the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District to support its Early Head Start and Head Start programs. The funding was announced in a…

FLINT, Mich. (March 20, 2017) – Genesee County and the Genesee Intermediate School District (ISD) will start providing additional Early Head Start services to the children and families of the Flint area thanks to $5.5 million in combined federal dollars secured by Sens. Debbie Stabenow, Gary Peters and Congressman Dan Kildee, D-Flint. "The Genesee Intermediate School District is very excited to begin offering center-based services for infants and toddlers, as well as pregnant mothers and…

'These Children are just looking for Someone to Anchor their Rocky Boats' - Dr. Poyner (March 2, 2017) -- At only 6 years old, Kevin challenged everything she knew about good teaching practices. The most trying child in her classroom, he exasperated her, and was infamous throughout the school for his difficult behavioral and social-emotional needs, said motivational speaker Nefertiti Bruce Poyner, Ed.D. in her keynote address to MHSA’s 26th Early Childhood Learning Conference in Troy. Over…

Researcher Gilliam Unravels Data Behind Preschool Expulsions, Offering Hope for Improving Outcomes for Children of Color (March 2, 2017) – Exhibiting a probing mind brimming with questions and a persistence to match, Yale University researcher Walter S. Gilliam, Ph.D., detailed how he came to learn that children of color, particularly black boys, were getting pushed out of preschool at rates disproportionate to their peers. Before the sensational headlines of his groundbreaking work made the…

East Lansing, MI (Feb. 8, 2017) – The re-competition for federal funding among Head Start providers in Detroit in 2014 significantly changed the early childhood landscape in that city – resulting in the emergence of a number of new grantees and location of Head Start classrooms. It became immediately clear that parents wanting to enroll their children in Head Start in Michigan’s largest city would need a tool to find the program best suited for their family’s needs, Nicole de Beaufort told a…

In his 2016 Yale Child Study Center research brief looking at implicit biases in preschool expulsions and suspensions, Walter S. Gilliam, Ph.D. wrote that the loss of an early educational placement or time in care could directly undermine a child’s access to future educational opportunities. Calling it the “push out” phenomenon, the noted scholar and researcher from the Yale University Child Study Center described it as an issue of growing concern in the early childhood education field in…

Jan. 6, 2017 (Washington, D.C.) As the newest Members of Congress join their colleagues in the nation’s capital to legislate a path toward a productive, prosperous and peaceful future, I am hopeful every member of the 115th Congress is reflecting on America’s core values and how those values contribute to the American dream. As a member of the Head Start community, I find myself reflecting on the more than 33 million vulnerable children whose lives have been transformed by the Head Start…