Head Start Program Quality and Intervention Quantity: Interactive Effects on Children's School Readiness Outcomes

• In Event: 66.053 - New Evidence on the Impacts of Early Childhood Interventions

Abstract

Using data from a nationally representative sample, this study proposes to examine how Head Start program quality (high vs. low) and intervention quantity (two years vs. one year) interact in predicting program children’s school readiness outcomes by the end of kindergarten. More specifically, this study will compare child outcomes among four intervention conditions that represent different combinations of program quality and quantity: (1) two-year, high-quality intervention; (2) two-year, low-quality intervention; (3) one-year, high-quality intervention; and (4) one-year, low-quality intervention. Propensity scores will be used to match children in four intervention conditions on a series of demographic characteristics in order to achieve a precise estimation of the effects of program quality and quantity. Policy and practice implications will be discussed.

Authors

• Xiaoli Wen, National-Louis University

• Christine Leow