As I entered Rosemount Center, nestled in a wooded residential area near the Washington, DC neighborhood of Mount Pleasant, the colorful displays on the walls immediately caught my eye. Animals on the lower half of the walls, parrots hanging as if in flight—It seemed as if everywhere one looked—up, down, around—there was something to stimulate curiosity. A group of toddlers filing out for a brisk walk gravitated to the giraffe, pointing, giggling and correctly identifying (in two languages) this animal with the long neck.

The next thing I noticed were the bookshelves, lined with all kinds of reading materials. I learned later that the reception area also serves as the lending library. Rosemount Center encourages parents to read to their children starting in infancy. The well-being of children seems to be embedded in the very structure that houses Rosemount.

Established as a child care center in 1972 by the House of Mercy, Rosemount Center receives federal funding for the 275 children in the Head Start and Early Head Start programs. The Department of Human Services (DHS) of the District of Columbia also funds a small number of tuition-assisted slots. Nearly three-quarters of the center's Head Start families have immigrated from Central and South America, China, Vietnam West Africa, Ethiopia and Haiti.

Change in the Air
Dr. Marsha E. Boveja, Rosemount Center's program director, has been preparing her staff and the Head Start parents for the changes that will come as Congress reauthorizes Head Start this year. She is particularly concerned with the portion of the President's proposal that would turn control of Head Start over to individual states that request it. "I don't think the District is in a place to run it," Boveja said.

The Bush administration says its proposal would give states the option of creating a cohesive system of early childhood education by integrating state-funded preschool programs with federal programs like Head Start and child care programs that operate with state and federal subsidies. The Administration argues that Head Start needs a stronger emphasis on early learning, making early education its top priority.

Critics are concerned that the plan would transform Head Start from a strong federal program with a history of success into a patchwork of state programs that would be vulnerable as states try to serve more children with the same amount of money.

Education: Already Center Stage
Boveja contends that the Rosemount Center already has a strong education component. Its Early Head Start program serves 75 children between the ages of six weeks to three years old and their families, either at home or at the center. The Center-based program offers full-day, year-round child care services. Class sizes range from 6 to 8 children. The classroom for infants has a two-to-one child-adult ratio; the others are three-to-one.

The Preschool Program also offers home- or Center-based services to more than 200 children between the ages of three and five and their families. Class size varies from 8 to 18 children, with child-to-adult ratios of four to one and six to one.

Rosemount Center's curricula for these programs is based on a framework established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children and Families (ACF), which governs Head Start programs. ACF lists five areas of concentration for Early Head Start and eight for Head Start. They range from language development and literacy to social and emotional development.

"Every classroom has an English-speaking teacher and a Spanish-speaking teacher," said Boveja. "And every teacher either has a degree or is enrolled in a degree program. Most of our money goes into personnel and professional development. Head Start mandates that by September 2003, at least half of all teachers have a degree, but we pushed for 100 percent. There's a demand to get kids in here to make them bi-literate and bilingual."

Head Start Politics 2003
In appearing before the House Subcommittee on Education Reform on March 6, 2003, Dr. Wade F. Horn, who serves as assistant secretary for children and families for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, testified that children in Head Start enter school further ahead than other economically disadvantaged children. But unfortunately, even after 30 years, Head Start children do not enter school at the same level as more economically advantaged children. The Administration's bottom line, according to Dr. Horn, is school readiness.

Margaret Spellings, Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, told an audience at a public forum hosted by the Brookings Institution on May 7, 2003, that the president's plan is an outgrowth of the stronger accountability measures in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001: if states are responsible for reading and math achievement in grades three to eight, they should have a strong say in programs that prepare children for kindergarten.

Boveja agrees with the call for more accountability but says programs can provide that under the existing Head Start. "Right now I think the mandate is that a four-year-old should get monitored twice a year," said Boveja. "We do all our kids, even the infants. We monitor them three times a year." Rosemount requires regular progress reports, daily observations, two parent conferences and three home visits.

A hallmark of Head Start since its inception in 1965 has been its focus on providing comprehensive and quality services to its children and families. Boveja is concerned that President Bush's proposal for Head Start may weaken the elements that help Rosemount families the most. "We're definitely for keeping Head Start comprehensive, because if you take away just one little piece of it, that's one more thing parents have to worry about, besides working their three jobs."

Why Comprehensive Services Matter
Rosemount Center's centralized delivery of social services is especially helpful in a community where many parents work two or three jobs, and are stretched for time and money.

"Every year, we assess families need through a formal process," Boveja explained. "Those might be health needs, knowing what shots to get. We screen for lead, hearing, vision. We offer social services with regard to mental health. We help our families in the community get two square meals a day. All of the things that parents have to worry about, they get them right here, all in one."

Rosemount Center also has the rare capacity to deliver special needs services in both English and Spanish. "We pay therapists to come in and provide disability services to children who need it," Boveja explained. "The predominant disability is speech. It"s very expensive and difficult to find a bilingual speech therapist."

Licensed by the District of Columbia, Rosemount is classified as a "Gold Star" center, which means that it meets all federal performance standards for Head Start and Early Head Start. "The mission is to prepare our children and families for the future," Dr. Boveja told me. "We prepare them educationally, with resources in the community, social services. When our families leave Rosemount, they have a foundation in education for the transition to public schools."

Parents as Partners
Rosemount Center, as all Head Start programs, is required to involve parents in its governance through policy councils. Boveja describes how the policy council concept works at Rosemount Center.

Rosemount Center's program director Dr. Marsha E. Boveja (1:12) Need Real Player?

Evelina Ochoa has a son in Rosemount's Head Start program and she serves as an officer on the Policy Council. "I'm very happy with the open communication with staff," said Ochoa. "The Policy Council gives parents a voice in how programs are run."

Dr. Workineh Simret's son is a Rosemount alumnus. "I admire the way the staff tries to reach out to individuals," he told me. "My son is in first grade now and doing very well because of the good foundation he received at Rosemount." Simret now serves as a community member of the Policy Council. Rosemount staff and policy council members went to Capitol Hill in February 2003 to discuss the future of Head Start. "We believe that our actions can make a difference," said Simret.

Boveja worries that the President's proposal for Head Start does not stipulate maintaining policy councils. "I guess it would become more like a PTA, which would rob Head Start parents from learning about shared governance and becoming advocates to help each other pull out of welfare."

"That's the beauty of Head Start," says Bojeva. "We don't just work with the children. The parents have resources to utilize when they leave us."

Show me the Data
Horn told the House subcommittee that the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) "is at the center of our research on the quality and effects of Head Start."

But Head Start supporters argue that there isn't much in the FACES 2000 survey that would seem to support a wholesale restructuring of the program. While there is too much information to present here, the section on quality in Head Start classrooms is instructive.

Head Start classrooms have scored consistently well in child-adult ratios, teacher-child interactions, and classroom activities and materials. FACES shows that Head Start fares better in some national studies in some of these indicators than child care centers and non-Head Start preschools.

FACES 2000 revealed that more Head Start teachers in 2000-2001 earned bachelor's and graduate degrees compared to the previous study. Still, Head Start teachers tend to have lower teaching qualifications on average than public school pre-kindergarten teachers.

The study also showed that higher teacher salaries ($21,000 for Head Start teachers, compared to $17,000 for child care workers) are linked to greater gains in several key areas, including letter identification, oral communication of basic social information and cooperative classroom behavior.

Critics of the Administration proposal argue that states with fiscal problems will be tempted to reduce costs or increase child-adult ratios. Congressman George Miller (D-California) told the Brookings audience on May 7th that "states are in serious trouble, and the timing for this proposal could not be worse."

Community Collaboration
Spellings said that in travels around the country, she heard alarming stories about the lack of coordination and consistency among preschool programs. But the many faces of Head Start can also be seen as a beneficial outgrowth of a commitment to serve and reflect the diverse communities in which they operate.

Boveja says that Rosemount Center is a resource to the community beyond the Head Start families. The Center has strengthened its ability to deliver critical services by building partnerships with more than 80 agencies and organizations. Rosemount's Health Committee, for example, partners with 10 local physicians, health care providers and agencies like DC Healthy Families and Whitman Walker Clinic.

Dr. Simret told me that Rosemount has become an invaluable resource to community residents. "You don't have to be Latino to feel welcome here," he said. "Rosemount has a place for everyone and in this diverse neighborhood, that's a wonderful thing."

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If you've got comments or questions about this story, we'd like to hear them. Send your response to Cecilia Garcia.

Cecilia Garcia is executive direct of Connect for Kids.