Childhood socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with persistent academic achievement gaps, which necessitates evidence-based, scalable interventions to improve children's outcomes. The present study reports results from a replication and extension of a family-based training program previously found to improve cognitive development in lower-SES…

This study is a randomized control trial of full- versus half-day prekindergarten (pre-K) in a school district near Denver, Colorado. Four-year-old children were randomly assigned an offer of half-day (4 days/week) or full-day (5 days/week) pre-K that increased class time by 600 hours. The full-day pre-K offer produced substantial, positive…

Head Start programs currently provide early childhood education and family support services to more than 900,000 low-income children and their families across the United States with an annual budget of around $8 billion in state and federal funds. Researchers and policy makers have debated the program's effectiveness since its inception in 1964.…

This paper capitalizes on the addition of geocodes for Head Start centers in which children were randomly assigned to address questions about the role of neighborhood characteristics in moderating impacts of assignment to the Head Start program. Researchers explore the extent to which impacts of assignment to Head Start on outcomes for children…

Using data from a survey on cognitive proficiency levels of first graders in Switzerland (N = 1.830), this study analyzes (1) who has access to institutional childcare, (2) whether institutional childcare affects cognitive skills of children who differ in terms of socioeconomic status, home literacy, native country, and home language, and (3) how…

This paper uses a regression discontinuity model to examine the effects on kindergarten entrance assessments of the Kalamazoo County Ready 4s (KC Ready 4s) program, a half-day pre-K program for four-year-olds in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. The results are based on test scores and other characteristics of up to 220 children participating in KC…

Research Findings: This study compared the unique effects of training low-income mothers in dialogic reading versus elaborative reminiscing on children's oral language and emergent literacy. Thirty-three low-income parents of 4-year-old children attending Head Start were randomly assigned to either dialogic reading, elaborative reminiscing, or a…

We review what is known about Head Start's impacts on children and argue that the program is likely to generate benefits to participants and society as a whole that are larger than program costs. Our conclusions differ from those in some previous reviews because we use a more appropriate standard to judge program effectiveness (benefit-cost…

Head Start is a federally funded preschool program for poor children designed to help close the gap between those children and their more advantaged peers before they begin public schooling. Given that Head Start appears to have positive long-run impacts on its recipients, a natural and important next question to ask is: What are the channels…

Publicly funded prekindergartens are programs that most states use to promote school readiness, especially of 4-year-old children at risk for academic problems due to poverty. Despite large public expenditures, these programs have not been widely evaluated. We examined 240 randomly selected pre-kindergarten programs in six states with mature…

To investigate the impact which continuity in children's programs might have for children's longterm cognitive and noncognitive development, effects of a prekindergarten (PreK) program on children's performance was measured using two cognitive measures at the end of the subjects' first grade year. Staff development activities in selected districts…

The Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), was first launched in 1997 as a periodic longitudinal study of program performance. This report is the fourth in a series that uses data from the FACES 2006 cohort to describe…

Overview: A recent evaluation of children who had participated in the Parent-Child Home Program (PCHP) as toddlers found that at kindergarten age, these children were performing at levels expected for their age, despite the fact that they had multiple factors putting them at risk for school failure. The Study: In the winter and spring of 2002, 135…