Head Start and urban children's school readiness: A birth cohort study in 18 cities.

Abstract

We used longitudinal data from a birth cohort study, the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, to investigate the links between Head Start and school readiness in a large and diverse sample of urban children at age 5 (N = 2,803; 18 cities). We found that Head Start attendance was associated with enhanced cognitive ability and social competence and reduced attention problems but not reduced internalizing or externalizing behavior problems. These findings were robust to model specifications (including models with city-fixed effects and propensity-scoring matching). Furthermore, the effects of Head Start varied by the reference group. Head Start was associated with improved cognitive development when compared with parental care or other nonparental care, as well as improved social competence (compared with parental care) and reduced attention problems (compared with other nonparental care). In contrast, compared with attendance at prekindergarten or other center-based care, Head Start attendance was not associated with cognitive gains but with improved social competence and reduced attention and externalizing behavior problems (compared with attendance at other center-based care). These associations were not moderated by child gender or race/ethnicity. KeywordsHead Start; school readiness; urban children; propensity score matching Since its inception in 1965, Head Start has been the single largest publicly financed early childhood education and care program in the United States. Head Start's primary goal is to improve the school readiness of children from low-income families by delivering highquality and comprehensive early education services to preschool age children, in particular, 3-and 4-year-olds. However, throughout its history, the success of the program in meeting this goal has been debated

Compared to what? Variation in the impacts of early childhood education by alternative care type

“…Although studies of Head Start programs yielded overall positive effects on short term indicators of children's cognitive skills and achievement, with average effect sizes of +0.27, those studies in which the children in the control group experienced other forms of center-based care yielded significantly smaller effects as compared to those studies of Head Start in which control group children received no additional services (see also Duncan and Magnuson, 2013, for a broader discussion of the counterfactual problem). Zhai et al (2011) find a similar result using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, concluding that impacts of Head Start were largest relative to non-center-based care.…”

Multiple Dimensions of Biological Development: Implications for Kindergarten Readiness Among Young Children in Poverty

“…In the present study, gender was not a significant determinantamongthe cognitive readiness factors measured related to achievement in reading, math, or general knowledge. This finding is consistent with the findings of another study that examined school readiness factors among Head Start urban children (Zhai, Brooks-Gunn, & Waldfogel, 2011). In this study the researchers found that neither gender nor race/ethnicity were moderating factors that determined children's school readiness.…”

The selection of children from low-income families into preschool.

“…Moreover, most non-Head Start programs are not free and can be expensive. Perhaps reflecting these differences, past research suggests that the children who enter Head Start often differ from children who attend other types of programs, demonstrating more behavioral problems and having more disadvantaged parents (Lee, Zhai, Brooks-Gunn, Han, & Walfogel, 2014; Zhai, Brooks-Gunn, & Waldfogel, 2011). …”