Building Futures, The Head Start Impact Study, Interim Report

摘要

The Head Start program, which provides comprehensive early childhood development services to low-income children and their families, has experienced significant growth over the last decade, especially as greater attention has been paid to the need for early intervention. During this period, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) released two reports underlining the lack of rigorous research on Head Start's effectiveness, i.e. the body of research on current Head Start is insufficient to draw conclusions about the impact of the national program, and, as a consequence, the Federal government's significant financial investment in the Head Start program, including plans to increase the number of children served and enhance the quality of the program, warrants definitive research studies, even though they may be costly. Based upon the GAO recommendation, and the testimony of research methodologists and early childhood experts, Congress mandated through the 1998 reauthorization of Head Start that the Department of Health and Human Services determine, on a national level, the impact of Head Start on the children it serves. The design of the study is built upon the report of the Advisory Committee on Head Start Research, Evaluating Head Start: A Recommended Framework for Studying the Impact of the Head Start Program. This report set forth a framework for research on the impact of Head Start that is both scientifically credible and feasible.