ABOUT US

HeadsUp! Reading is an early literacy course for educators and parents of young children, focused on strengthening crucial early childhood literacy skills. HeadsUp! Reading delivers high quality, research-based education via satellite TV, directly to early childhood programs across the US. Taught by a diverse faculty of experts in early childhood and literacy, the course offers a variety of professional development credits, including CEUs and credit at more than 140 colleges nationwide.

This collaborative project, led by the National Head Start Association and its partners, the Council for Professional Recognition and RISE Learning Solutions, delivers the highest quality professional development to early educators, parents, and child care providers at approximately 900 sites nationwide.

An important component of the course is a rigorous, interactive website (www.huronline.org) that supports learners who come to the course with varying goals. This cutting-edge, multi-dimensional “meeting place” and learning center provides the opportunity for students, faculty and facilitators to interact and learn more. It supports the fifteen, two-hour TV classes through additional exercises, content reinforcement, readings and links with other resources. The website is also the place where both facilitators and students can access all of the materials that they need in order to complete the course. All these materials are available in English and Spanish to complement the live simultaneous translation of the TV broadcasts.

Each site offering HeadsUp! Reading also has a trained facilitator who monitors the progress of students. The facilitators have had special instruction in distance education techniques and also help students access the variety of credit available for the course.

The states of Florida, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and the California Children and Families Commission, Providence, RI and Puget Sound Educational Service District (PSESD), have made HeadsUp! Reading a cornerstone of their strategy to improve early literacy.