step up to quality

We Learn Through Play at CUHS

Photo of child playing. Community United Head Start is one of the cutting edge leaders in early childhood education and the Head Start community. We have been serving families and educating children for over 40 years. Our philosophy behind what we do is simple - we believe in strong families and strong communities and we believe it begins with strong individuals.

Head Start Program Goals

The Head Start Program is based in the premise that all children share certain needs and can benefit from a comprehensive developmental program to meet those needs. The Head Start Program approach is based the philosophy that:

  • A child can benefit most from a comprehensive, interdisciplinary program that fosters development and resolves problems through a broad range of services
  • The child's entire family, as well as community must be involved. The program should maximize the strengths and unique experiences of each child. The family, which is perceived as the principal influence on the child's development, must be a direct participant in the program
  • The overall goal of the Head Start program is to bring about a greater degree of social competence in children, that is to say, a greater degree of everyday effectiveness in dealing with both present environment and later responsibilities in school and in life.

High Scope

With our program philosophy and goals at the forefront of our minds, Community United Head Start has taken early childhood education to the next level by specializing in individualizing for each child's needs including A-typical development. We realize that all children have unique needs and talents and at CUHS, our staff has been trained to identify those areas and adapt goals as well as adjust the curriculum so that it is specific to the varying requirements of each learning style and temperament of the classroom.

We use the High/Scope curriculum. We have used this curriculum for over 20 years and continue to use it because it embodies two essential ingredients for early childhood educational success: developmentally appropriate practices and active learning.

Developmentally appropriate practice refers to applying child development knowledge in making thoughtful and appropriate decisions about early childhood program practices - the understanding that "programs designed for young children be based on what is known about young children." Everything that has been learned through research and formulated into theory about how children develop and learn at various ages and stages and is used to create learning environments that match children's abilities and developmental tasks. Active Learning refers to the practice of "hands on" learning. Children have the opportunity to explore their environment through play. The critical principle of the High/Scope curriculum is that teachers must be fully committed to providing settings in which children learn actively and construct their own knowledge. There are "five ingredients" of active learning:

  1. Materials for the child to explore
  2. Manipulation of materials by the children
  3. Choices by the child about what to do with the materials Child
  4. Language from the child
  5. Support from the adult

Make My Child Love School

These "ingredients" help to develop children's ability to use a variety of skills including

  • developing their knowledge of the world around them as a base for educational concepts
  • enabling children to effectively communicate their experiences to other children and adults
  • develop their ability to work with others
  • make decisions about what to do and how to do it, and plan their use of time and energy
  • to develop their ability to apply their newly acquired reasoning capacity in a wide range of naturally occurring situations and with a variety of materials.

The High/Scope curriculum also lends itself to the alignment of the Federal Head Start Child Outcomes and the newly mandated Ohio State Standards (The Early Learning Content Standards). The outcomes and standards provide additional structure and guidance to help support what is being taught and learned in the classroom. They also provide a tool that can be used to measure and assess growth and development which helps our teachers better prepare children for kindergarten and life long learning.

The teacher's role in the High/Scope classroom is to scaffold children's learning. Scaffolding is the process of providing support to promote growth. We help children move from one level to another by establishing a frame work that makes growth possible. Each of our classrooms has a Site Administrator/Head Teacher who has a minimum of an associate degree and an assistant teacher who has a CDA. We provide on going training to our teachers to ensure that they are current on the latest trends in early childhood education.

Community United Head Start is also Ohio's first Star Rated Head Start program. We are part of the www.StepUpToQuality.com initiative which is a quality rating system designed to recognize the effort of licensed early care and education programs that take steps toward improving quality. Step Up To Quality has three steps above Ohio's licensing standards. Each step equates to a star rating. For example, a center that has achieved One Step will be awarded one star, two stars for achieving Step Two and three stars for Step Three. We are proud to announce that 6 of our centers have been awarded stars. Please click on each center to learn more about what they do and how they do it!

For more information about our agency or to find out how to enroll please call (216)391-8333