Education

Head Start is a comprehensive program that provides a positive preschool environment and developmentally appropriate school readiness experiences. Our professional services include education & early childhood development, medical, dental & mental health, nutrition, and parent involvement.

PACE ECE utilizes The Creative Curriculum, an award-winning research-based curriculum featuring exploration and discovery as a way of learning, enabling children to develop confidence, creativity, and critical thinking skills. The Creative Curriculum is based on 38 objectives for development and learning. These objectives are fully aligned with the Head Start Outcomes Early Learning Framework – Ages Birth to Five and state early learning standards, and integrated into each and every one of the comprehensive collection of resources that makes up the curriculum. In addition, the curriculum offers daily opportunities to individualize instruction by helping teachers meet the needs of every learner, with a particular focus on English language development.

PACE recognizes that parents are their children’s first and most influential teachers and that continued involvement by parents as partners in their children’s education contributes greatly to student academic achievement and a positive learning environment. Head Start relies heavily on family and community members to strengthen its programs. The Policy Council serves as a decision and policy making body for the Head Start program in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Office of Education’s Board of Education and the shared-governance model.

Volunteers are essential to the PACE Early Childhood Education program. Parents, community residents, students and seniors donate their time to PACE ECE. Whether it is in the classroom, office, playground, or through extended home activities and providing medical services, volunteers contribute to making Head Start a comprehensive, individualized program for children and their families. Head Start is 80 percent federally funded and 20 percent locally funded. The local 20 percent share comes from cash contributions, in-kind donations of goods and services and volunteer services donated to the program by members of the community.