Dr. Edward Zigler, a Founder of Head Start, Endorses Educational First Steps

DALLAS, TX – Dr. Edward Zigler has dedicated more than four decades to improving the lives of at-risk children. As a founder of the Head Start program he knows what is necessary for children to succeed at school and in life. Dr. Zigler recently endorsed Educational First Steps and its early childhood education model.

Merriott Terry, President and CEO of Educational First Steps said, “Educational First Steps works with existing child care centers and preschools to improve the quality of education by providing professional teacher trainings and scholarships, educational materials and mentoring of center staff. Dr. Zigler’s endorsement of our efforts on behalf of economically disadvantaged children has encouraged us to expand our efforts outside the Metroplex.”

There are grass roots solutions to creating high quality child care that are cost effective and enduring. Educational First Steps (EFS) in Dallas, Texas is an exemplary example of what an inspired organization can do to achieve excellence in early childhood education at child care centers serving low-income families. The fundamental principle underlying all of their work is that trained, quality teachers in the classrooms are the key to creating quality in child care programs. EFS spends much of its efforts on-site in child care centers working directly with child care providers in their own classrooms. By doing this, EFS is able to bring best practices in early childhood education directly to the teachers providing those services in the reality of their classrooms with their students. There are many other elements to EFS programs, such as tuition reimbursements for teachers and child care directors and materials for classrooms. Most importantly, the improved quality has been linked to improved educational performance of the children once they enter the public school system. I have been working to improve the quality of child care for our nation's children for more than 40 years. The Educational First Steps program is a model of a cost effective program that accomplishes this goal. — Edward Zigler, Ph.D.

Edward Zigler, Ph.D.
Edward Zigler received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1958. He joined the psychology department at Yale in 1959 and also served on the faculty of Yale’s Child Study Center. He founded and is Director Emeritus of Yale’s Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy, one of the first centers in the nation to combine training in developmental science and social policy construction. He is currently Sterling Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, but remains as active as ever in his scholarly and social policy endeavors. In addition to being one of the founders of the field of applied developmental psychology, Dr. Zigler pioneered the discipline of developmental psychopathology as well as the developmental approach to mental retardation and adult psychopathology. He conceptualized the School of the 21st Century, which has been adopted by more than 1,300 schools in 20 states. Working with state governments and private foundations, he has played a central role in generating the momentum toward establishing universal preschool education.

Dr. Zigler helped to plan several national projects and policies, including Head Start, Early Head Start, and the Family and Medical Leave Act. In the early 1970s, he served as the founding Director of the U.S. Office of Child Development (now ACYF) and Chief of the U.S. Children’s Bureau.

Dr. Zigler is the author, coauthor, or editor of more than 800 scholarly publications and more than 39 books. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received many honorary degrees.