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Every October, the National Head Start Association (NHSA) invites the country to celebrate Head Start Awareness Month. It is a time to recognize the teachers, leaders, family advocates, and families who make Head Start one of the most important early childhood programs in the nation.
Head Start serves approximately 750,000 children and families each year in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. territories, and American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Since 1965, it has helped more than 40 million children prepare for school and for life.
At Conscious Discipline, we have had the privilege of walking alongside Head Start programs for more than 20 years. As a member of the NHSA Leadership Council, we are proud to join this year’s celebration and to share a few of the stories that have shaped our partnership.
Where It Started: Knox County Head Start
Early in our Head Start journey, Peg Tazwell, Director of Knox County Head Start, asked a question that many Head Start leaders still ask today.
How do you rally overwhelmed early childhood teachers to embrace a new way of being and teaching?
Her answer was ours, too. Start with the support of the very adults experiencing the overwhelm. Knox County made a program-wide commitment to Conscious Discipline training, beginning with administrators. Peg is clear that it was never meant to be a quick fix. Over time, the change spread from the top down: leadership team to teachers, from teachers to children, and from the classroom into families’ homes. Knox County Head Start went on to earn National Center of Excellence status.
Peg tells the full story, including how Knox County began implementation and why she calls Conscious Discipline a practice rather than a program, in our podcast episode Knox County Head Start is Building Bright Futures for Young Children AND Their Families.
Knox County’s journey was also featured in an independent review of social-emotional learning initiatives by Jones and Lesaux. The review credited the program’s success to three things: a common language shared by children and adults, staff empowerment, and implementation across the whole organization. Read our summary of the Jones & Lesaux (2013) case study for more information.
Adult-First in High-Stress Settings
Head Start programs serve families facing some of the most challenging circumstances in the country. Naturally, that stress shows up in the classroom.
At the Riverside County Office of Education Migrant Head Start in El Centro, California, program coordinator Gilda Gonzalez saw children responding to the instability of migrant farmworker life with aggression and withdrawal. Her team began slowly. They trained teachers first, then introduced simple daily rituals like deep breathing, greetings, and goodbyes. Classrooms using Conscious Discipline noted reductions in those stress behaviors. The program also extended the work to families through the Conscious Discipline Parent Education Curriculum. Gilda describes Conscious Discipline as “a transformational program that works.”
Hear Gilda’s story in Conscious Discipline Implementation at a Migrant Head Start Program.
This is the heart of our adult-first approach. A regulated adult is a child’s best teacher. When Head Start staff have the skills to stay calm in the face of conflict, they can teach children those same skills. The key is the acceptance of this one tenet: supporting Head Start’s workforce of about 250,000 people is not separate from supporting children; it is how we support children.
What It Looks Like in the Classroom
Sometimes, transformation looks like a pair of heart-shaped glasses.
At the West Washington County Head Start/Early Head Start in Arkansas, part of the Economic Opportunity Agency’s Head Start program, preschoolers practiced seeing the best in one another after reading Shubert Sees the Best. Before long, the children were pointing out acts of kindness in their classroom on their own. They reminded friends to “look through your glasses” and see the good in their School Family members. When the children started shaping their fingers into hearts over their eyes, the staff gave them real heart-shaped glasses.
Read the full story: Preschoolers at an Arkansas Head Start See the Best in Others.
The Evidence Behind the Stories
While stories like these are inspirational, they’re also backed by research. In one study, Head Start centers in Ohio that used Conscious Discipline were compared with similar Head Start centers in Louisiana that did not. Researchers measured resiliency with the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA). Teachers and parents alike rated the children in Conscious Discipline classrooms as having significantly stronger protective factors and fewer behavioral concerns than children in the comparison classrooms.
The results show up in program quality measures, too. Geminus Head Start reports CLASS scores 13% higher than the national Head Start average.
Explore more in our Head Start research and articles archive and on our Methodology & Research page.
Celebrating Today’s Centers of Excellence
This Head Start Awareness Month, we are especially proud of three partners who have earned Head Start Center of Excellence status: Children’s Institute, Geminus Head Start and Kansas City Kansas Head Start. Each program credits Conscious Discipline as a key part of the adult-first work that strengthened their practice, consistency, and outcomes.
Children’s Institute is one of our longest-standing Head Start partners. As Heidi Condrey of Conscious Discipline shared when the program received this honor:
“Children’s Institute Inc., named a Head Start National Center of Excellence, has been a proud partner of Conscious Discipline for many years. Their commitment and dedication to weaving Conscious Discipline into the fabric of their program is apparent in everything they do. We are deeply honored to partner with and support this premier Head Start program!”
We are grateful to walk alongside programs like these and to celebrate the hard work and dedication it takes to earn this recognition.
Built to Align With What Head Start Programs Are Accountable For
Head Start leaders carry significant responsibility, and they don’t need another initiative competing for their attention. Conscious Discipline is designed as a framework to fit within existing programs and requirements, organically supporting CLASS-aligned practice, Parent, Family, and Community Engagement goals, and the Head Start Program Performance Standards.
To support planning and conversations across your program, we offer three free alignment resources:
Celebrate With Us
Head Start has always been about more than a classroom. It is about families, communities, and the belief that every child deserves a strong start. Here are a few ways to join the celebration this month:
To every Head Start teacher, leader, family advocate, and family: thank you. We are honored to be part of your story, and we look forward to many more years of building safe, connected, and resilient communities together.
