Excerpt
Head Start provides comprehensive early child development services to low-income children, their families, and communities. In 1998, Congress determined, as part of Head Start's reauthorization, that the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) should conduct a national study to determine the impact of Head Start on the children it serves. In October 2000, DHHS awarded a contract to Westat in collaboration with the Urban Institute, American Institutes for Research, and Decision Information Resources to conduct this study through spring of the children’s first grade year.
The National Head Start Impact Study has two primary goals. The first is to determine on a national basis how Head Start affects the school readiness of children participating in the program as compared to children not enrolled in Head Start. Does Head Start improve children's cognitive development, general knowledge, approaches to learning, social and emotional development, communication skills, fine and gross motor skills, and physical well-being? In addition, how does Head Start affect the lives of the families of children enrolled in the program?
The second goal of the study is to determine under which conditions Head Start works best and for which children. To meet this goal, the study will examine various factors that could affect the results of the Head Start program. These factors will include differences among children attending Head Start, differences in children's home environments, the different types of Head Start programs available (home or center-based, quality indicators such as staff ratio, curriculum, part- vs. full-day programs, one versus two years exposure), and the availability and quality of other child care and preschool programs in a particular area.
The National Head Start Impact Study is a longitudinal study that involves approximately 5,000 three and four year old preschool children across 84 nationally representative grantee/delegate agencies in communities where there are more eligible children and families than can be served by the program. The children participating were randomly assigned to either a treatment group (which had access to Head Start services) or a comparison group (which did not have access to Head Start services, but could receive other community resources).
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