Head Start Reports

Head Start Evaluation

The Benefits and Costs of Head Start
There is a growing scientific consensus that early childhood intervention programs, such as Head Start, generate benefits that outweight current costs.

The National Evaluation of Early Head Start: Early Head Start Works
Key to the program’s success is its emphasis on the implementation of performance standards, which ensure the highest quality care for babies. Unfortunately, Early Head Start is reaching only a small proportion of at-risk children and families.

Head Start Impact Study: First Year Findings
After the first year of this study, greater positive effects were found among 3-year olds enrolled in Head Start than among 4-year olds enrolled. The study included cognitive, social-emotional, and health domains as areas of impact.

Getting Inside the "Black Box" of Head Start Quality: What Matters and What Doesn’t
Former Head Start students have higher reading and vocabulary scores where Head Start spending was higher and, children in programs that devoted higher shares of their budgets to child-specific spending and are less likely to have been retained.

The Effectiveness of Early Head Start for 3-Year Old Children and Their Parents: Lessons for Policy and Programs
The programs that offered a mix of home-visiting and center-based services and that fully implemented the performance standards showed the strongest and most positive impacts in 3-year old Head Start programs.

Expanding and Improving Head Start

Testimony before the US House of Representatives March 2009
This testimony given by the Director of Leadership and Public Policy at the National Women’s Law Center informed the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies about the benefits of Head Start and the difficulties it faces caused by a funding freeze since 2002. The speaker asks that the Committee return Head Start to higher funding levels.

Building on the Promise: State Initiatives to Expand Access to Early Head Start for Young Children and Their Families
Vulnerable babies and toddlers need positive early learning experiences to promote healthy development. While some states have begun to expand services, less than 3 percent of all children who are federally eligible for Early Head Start are being served.

Head Start Child Outcomes Framework
This framework is intended to guide Head Start programs in their ongoing assessment of the progress of children and in their efforts to analyze data on child outcomes in program assessment and improvement.