Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (n ≈ 6,950), a nationally representative sample of children born in 2001, we examined school readiness (academic skills and socio-emotional wellbeing) at kindergarten entry for children who attended Head Start compared to those who experienced other types of child care (prekindergarten, other center-based care, other non-parental care, or parental care). Using propensity score matching methods and OLS regressions with rich controls, we found that Head Start participants had higher early reading and math scores than children in other non-parental care or parental care, but also higher levels of conduct problems than those in parental care. Head Start participants had lower early reading scores compared to children in prekindergarten, and had no differences in any outcomes compared to children in other center-based care. Head Start benefits were more pronounced for children who had low initial cognitive ability or low-educated parents, or attended Head Start for more than 20 hours per week.

Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (n ≈ 6,800), we examined the factors explaining variation in school readiness in a large and nationally representative sample of children in immigrant and non-immigrant families. In OLS regression models with rich controls to account for selection, we found that language background was a key factor in explaining children of immigrants’ expressive language and early reading at kindergarten, whereas both socioeconomic status and language background helped explain their performance in math.

Using a sample of low-income children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (N ≈ 4,350) and propensity-score weighted regressions, we analyzed children's nutrition, weight, and health care receipt at kindergarten entry, comparing 1) Head Start participants and all non-participants, and 2) Head Start participants and children in prekindergarten, other center-based care, other non-parental care, or only parental care. Overall, we found that compared to all non-participants, Head Start participants were more likely to receive dental checkups but showed no differences in getting medical checkups; they were also more likely to have healthy eating patterns but showed no differences in Body Mass Index (BMI), overweight, or obesity. However, these results varied depending on the comparison group—Head Start participants showed lower BMI scores and lower probability of overweight compared to those in other non-parental care, and the effects on healthy eating and dental checkups differed by comparison group.

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Few pieces of recent longitudinal research have had as much influence in United Kingdom policy circles as Leon Feinstein's analysis of 1970 birth cohort study data (reported in 2003) on cognitive development assessed at ages 22 months, 42 months five years and ten years. Breakdown by social class of the test performance data demonstrated that infants of superior cognitive ability in the first assessment from working class backgrounds showed relative decline with age in test performance compared with their middle class counterparts, who while starting from an inferior position, subsequently overtook the working class group. The findings were embodied in what became a famous graph showing this crossover and consequent reversal of predicted life chances. They pointed to substantial obstacles to social mobility and were an important factor in the policy response of major pre--school educational interventions such as the Sure Start programme introduced by the Labour Government to reverse the trend, which attracted support from across the political spectrum.Subsequent re--analysis by John Jerrim and Anna Vignoles challenged the existence of the crossover as a statistical artefact attributing it to the well--known phenomenon of 'regression to the mean'. The consequence was a cooling off of support for the intervention policy directed at strengthening working class children's early cognitive performance. This shift included termination of the Sure Start programme by the new Coalition Government (Conservative and Liberal Democrat) that took office in 2010. Subsequent research has qualified the picture further raising issues on a number of methodological and substantive fronts -especially the need to give more attention to measurement error in such work and for a more nuanced interpretation of such longitudinal research results. Social class disadvantage in cognitive development is well established but the relative loss of competence developmentally needs to be treated with caution.In an opening paper Leon Feinstein reviews the methodological criticism of his original research. The points he raises are then debated in commentaries by John Jerrim and Anna Vignoles, Harvey Goldstein and Robert French, Elizabeth Washbrook and RaeHyuck Lee and Ruth Lupton. Leon Feinstein's response to these will be published in the next issue of the journal. Opening paper by Leon FeinsteinEarly Intervention Foundation, UK leon.feinstein@eif.org.uk Social class differences in early cognitive development and regression to the mean IntroductionIn April 2011 the then new Coalition Government published its social mobility strategy (HM Government, 2011). As a minor reference within the overall document, figure 2 of was reproduced on page eight as a reference to the claim that "Bright children from poorer families tend to fall back relative to more advantaged peers who have not performed as well."This claim in the strategy brought an immediate response in a press release from Professor Daniel Read (2003) Simultaneously, Jerrim and Vignoles (2011),...