A Comparative Study Of American And British Pre-school Education Plan

"Head Start" and "Sure Start" as the one project established by the federal government,which are to provide disadvantaged children with pre-school education and comprehensivehealth care program in America and England, which play an important role in pre-schooleducation development and reform.“Head Start” program officially began in1965, its initialpurpose is to provide disadvantaged children with a good start and firm foundation in thedevelopment of their life. It played an important role in the continuous development plan, withits gradual development the service objects have expanded to all children who need help. Itincludes high quality inclusive education services, comprehensive health services, social servicesand parents involvement services. The purpose is to improve the ability of all aspects ofdisadvantaged children and to improve the development of children’s parents and promotion ofteachers’ professional through this plan."Sure Start" is invested and established by BritishGovernment in1998. And it is the preschool comprehensive plan relied on communities andfaced pre-school children and parents..It is designed to provide better condition of development,and create a better life for children and parents and higher quality pre-school education throughthe four aspects.The purpose of this study is to find some common rules and implementing measures in theprocess of development of pre-school education through comparing and analysising the twowell-known comprehensive plan:"Head Start" and "Sure Start". By doing this, bringenlightenment to pre-school education in China. This study use research method and analysismethod overview the research results of both pre-school education plans:"Head Start" and"Sure Start" at home and abroad. And analysis social backgrounds, theory bases and aims andcontents of the two programs. And on this basis, compare and analysis the two pre-schooleducation programs using method of comparative study, and bring up two aims of research. Thefirst is to find things in common existing in the development process, including:1. Analysis and comparison of basic characteristics of the two pre-school educationprogram.1) Attention to the advantaged children;2) Emphasis on development of cognitive, language and social aspects of pre-schoolchildren;3) Support to parent involvement and parent training;4) Make full use of community resources;5) Emphasis on the assessment of the quality implementation of the program；6) The Government’s emphasis on the implementation of pre-school education program; 2. Comparative analysis on the problems existing the two pre-school education programs.1) Problems existing capital investment of the program.2) Problems existing young convergence and improving children academic performance.Another aim is to bring up enlightenment for the development and revolution of pre-schooleducation in our country using research results from the first research aim and specific reality.There are conclusions:1. Concern for pre-school education to disadvantaged children in response to the trend ofthe times.2. Optimize pre-school courses and improve the level of preschool teachers;3. Form a force of kindergartens, families and communities and use all available resources;4. Increase the government’s attention to the pre-school education, to ensure the smoothdevelopment of pre-school education;5. Establish and improve the pre-assessment system to improve the quality of education.