Providing preschool students with a head start in Lakewood earned the city’s program recognition from the federal government.
During a recent federal review of the Lakewood Head Start, the teachers’ ratings on a standardized nationwide assessment tool far exceeded other programs that were evaluated in the region. On two of three specific ratings, the teachers’ compiled scores were double the nationwide requirements.
Lakewood’s program was in the top 10 percent nationally.
“This is pretty exciting for us,” Sharon Keith-Zamora, family services manager said. “A lot of the time our teachers don’t get the recognition for the high quality preschool programs we offer.”
According to Sherry Peterson, Lakewood’s Head Start administrator, the city started offering the program in 1997 and has no-fee preschool to 3- and 4-year-old Lakewood children who are from low-income families, homeless or child with identified special needs.
Currently the program is serving around 119 children with around 20 staff, from teachers and co-teachers to bilingual assistants.
“Our program is very community based, and we try to set it up in a way to prepare kids and get them school-ready,” Peterson said. “We work with the whole family and cover topics like nutrition, health care and family support.”
Both Peterson and Keith-Zamora attribute the high ranking the program received due to coaches head start is providing to students.
“We received a grant to hire these mentor coaches, who are able to provide real targeted goals for students,” Keith-Zamora said.
Staff from the program may be asked to help train new staff in other areas due to the high scores they received, she added.
Federal representatives do these reviews triennially, and there are around 2,000 criteria they look at, from health and safety to educational requirements, and governance from local bodies.
Peterson said the high scores reflects the dedication of all those involved in the city’s program.
“I think it shows how much teachers are willing to work and change with the students,” she said. “In the end we want to make these students ready for school in every sense.”
To learn more about the Head Start program, visit .