There are unique challenges to estimating causal effects of preschool for students with special needs that have not received attention in the literature. We revisit the Head Start Impact Study (HSIS) to illustrate that when and how special needs is defined has implications for the internal validity of and interpretation of special needs subgroup…

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.…

The objective of this study was to evaluate two early intervention packages to promote successful transitions to kindergarten for preschoolers with behavior problems recruited from Head Start preschools. Fifty children (M[subscript age] = 61 months; 76% male; 98% minority) referred by teachers due to early externalizing behavior problems were…

This paper uses data from the Head Start Impact Study (HSIS), a nationally representative multisite randomized trial, to quantify variation in effects of Head Start during 2002-2003 on children's cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes relative to the effects of other local alternatives, including parent care. We find that (1) treatment and control…

AS PART OF AN EFFORT TO ASSESS THE EFFECT OF THE BALTIMORE HEAD START PROGRAM ON COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT, CHILDREN ENROLLED IN THIS PROGRAM WERE GIVEN THE PEABODY PICTURE VOCABULARY TEST (PPVT) AND THE DRAW-A-PERSON (DAP) TEST AT THE START OF THE PROGRAM, AT ITS TERMINATION, AND WHEN THEY ENROLLED IN KINDERGARTEN. A CONTROL GROUP, DRAWN FROM THE…

Even Start is a national program of early childhood and adult education to improve family literacy. This document is a series of four appendices which accompany the National Evaluation of the Even Start Family Literacy Program, a 4-year effort to assess projects, participants, and effects of Even Start. Appendix A provides in-depth description of…

The Even Start program was implemented to improve the educational opportunities of U.S. children and adults by integrating community early childhood education and adult education for parents into a unified family literacy initiative. This document is the final project report of the National Evaluation of the Even Start Family Literacy Program, a…

The Even Start program was authorized by Congress in 1988 to provide early childhood, adult, and parenting education to participating families in a family literacy initiative. This document provides an executive summary of the National Evaluation of Even Start, which assessed services, participants and effectiveness. The summary highlights topics…

This report describes an evaluation program for the kindergartens in Williamsburg County, S.C. for 1970-71. Twenty-five kindergartens, serving 587 children in ten elementary schools in the county, were operated on a full day schedule during the 1970-71 school year. Eighty-one percent of the children enrolled were from poor families. The evaluation…

This report presents the results of a study from July 1965 to July 1969 on the effects of year-long prekindergarten programs for disadvantaged children involving eight school districts in New York State and approximately 1,800 children. The study focused on factors which the schools considered important and major objectives of their programs.…

The object of this study was to determine the extent to which disadvantaged kindergarten pupils would benefit from association with advantaged pupils and teachers in the improvement of basic skills and self-concept. The sample for 1967-68 was composed of 20 disadvantaged rural Negro and Caucasion 5-year-old children randomly selected. The sample…

The purpose of this study was to assess the importance of teacher attitudes, maternal attitudes, and traditional versus Montessori nursery school training on the learning and achievement of the preschool child. Eighty-two middle class children and thirty-eight disadvantaged children who attended either Montessori or traditional preschools…

The purpose of Howard University's pre-"war on poverty" experiment, operating a 2 year, full day nursery school for disadvantaged 3-year-olds, was to determine whether and to what extent a standard nursery school program in which parents are involved could help children in their later schooling. This booklet gives an overall view of the…

A research project was conducted to study the effects of an 8-week prekindergarten enrichment program and of two 15-month preschool enrichment programs. Pretest and posttest scores of experimental and control kindergarten children (a sample of 100 out of 1,000 subjects) showed that both groups made significant gains in all ability categories o f…

Objectives of this study were (1) to determine the effect of preschool experience on the personal and social adjustment and school readiness and achievement of the deprived child, (2) to determine what combination of age at intervention and treatment intensity was most effective, and (3) to assess the effects of parent involvement on the child's…