Head Start is a federal early childhood intervention designed to reduce disparities in preschool outcomes. The first randomized experimental study of Head Start, the National Head Start Impact Study (NHSIS), found impacts on academic outcomes of 0.15 to 0.3 standard deviations measured at the end of the program year, although the estimated impacts were no longer statistically-significant when measured at the end of kindergarten or first grade.

Assessments that Head Start is ineffective based on the NHSIS results are in our view premature, given our currently limited understanding of how and why early childhood education improves long-term life chances.

Many of the specific changes to Head Start that have been proposed could potentially wind up doing more harm than good.

See Also:

“Third Grade Follow-up to the Head Start Impact Study Final Report [OPRE Report 2012-45]”
“Pre-K in the Public Schools: Evidence from Within US States”
“Early Childhood Intervention and Life-Cycle Skill Development: Evidence from Head Start”
“Elusive Longer-Run Impacts of Head Start: Replications Within and Across Cohorts”
“Rigorous Large-Scale Educational RCTs Are Often Uninformative: Should We Be Concerned?”
“Effects of the Tennessee Prekindergarten Program on children’s achievement and behavior through third grade”
“Randomized Controlled Trials Commissioned by the Institute of Education Sciences Since 2002: How Many Found Positive Versus Weak or No Effects?”
“Effects of a statewide pre-kindergarten program on children’s achievement and behavior through sixth grade”
“Experimental Evidence on Distributional Effects of Head Start”
“Neighborhoods and Academic Achievement: Results from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment”
“Influence of young adult cognitive ability and additional education on later-life cognition”