Trying a new model for an old program

On a recent morning at St. Elizabeth's Head Start in North Philadelphia, Ashley Post, a first-year teacher freshly graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, clicked on her "listening ears" and patted her "thinking cap" as a room of 15 preschoolers imitated her every move.

Many of the children had been there last year, but most of the adults - including Post, the center director, the curriculum manager, and a Teach for America mentor - are new, along with many of the toys, books, furniture, and even the paint on the walls.

The changes are part of an initiative by Acelero Learning Inc., a New York City company that took over St. Elizabeth's this school year with a two-pronged goal: making money and providing quality education.

Though Head Start is best known as a federally funded child-care program for the poor, changes are afoot that worry some early-childhood advocates. In 1998, Congress passed a law that opened the door to for-profit operators; other changes last year could attract even more companies.

Acelero is the nation's first and so far only large-scale for-profit Head Start operator. Its chief executive officer, Aaron Lieberman, a Yale University graduate interested in the market-based education changes that have fueled the charter-school movement, says he believes he can turn a profit from one of the country's oldest antipoverty programs.

Since opening its first center in Camden in 2005, Acelero has expanded quickly. It now operates more than a dozen centers, in New Jersey, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.

Acelero entered Pennsylvania in the fall, taking over two centers in North Philadelphia, including St. Elizabeth's, after the YMCA lost its grant because of "recurring fiscal issues," according to the federal Administration for Children and Families, which runs Head Start.

The company also runs the education program at Frankie's World on Poplar Street, a center for children with medical needs.

Lieberman, who started Acelero to "do well" financially "and do good at the same time," has supporters. "They're trying to be very smart about delivering good services to children and families," said Yasmina Vinci, director of the National Head Start Association, an advocacy group.

Acelero has encountered problems, however, including a federal audit that accused it of overcharging the federal Head Start agency and inspections in New Jersey that found a worker had slapped a child and another had left children alone.