Introducing the New Head Start Program Performance Standards Showcase Overview‌

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Dr. Blanca Enriquez: Hello! I am Dr. Blanca Enriquez, the director of the Office of Head Start. I welcome you to the Head Start Program Performance Standards Showcase. This showcase is designed to help you explore the new Performance Standards through a series of videos and some tools to help you better understand the Standards. We will continue to grow this collection of resources over the next few weeks and months, so we hope you will check this space often. Make sure you are subscribed to receive OHS emails so that you can be notified as new resources on the Performance Standards become available.

The implementation of the new Head Start Program Performance Standards will compel you to engage in a paradigm shift. This paradigm shift is a change from one way of thinking to another. This shift just doesn’t happen; it is driven by change agents. In our case, the new Performance Standards. Critical to this new mindset is the fact that the new Standards are less prescriptive. The Standards outline what quality comprehensive services and management of the programs entail, but the Standards do not dictate how to do it. This is where your shift in thinking comes in.

This showcase is just the beginning of the supports we have for the Head Start community

as we make this change. Here at the Office of Head Start, we look forward to walking this path with you, as together we embrace the paradigm of these new Standards.

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