3-006 - Comparing Effectiveness of Head Start and Pre-K Programs

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The Head Start (HS) and prekindergarten (pre-K) serve over one-half of all 4-year-olds. HS is the single federal early care and education (ECE) program that provides comprehensive developmental services to low-income children and their parents, and pre-K programs are locally funded ECE programs that provide more academic-oriented services to preschool-age children. While HS enrolment has been stable over the recent decade, pre-K enrollment has rapidly increased by raised state-level investment. Accordingly, there have been debates about both the comparability of the two types of programs as well as the effectiveness of each in promoting school readiness and variability within each type of program. This symposium’s three papers aim to provide ECE researchers with a deeper understanding of these debates.

The first paper employs a meta-analytic review of 241 HS evaluations implemented between 1965-2007 to explore the extent to which differences in research design explain variation in HS impacts on achievement outcomes. Using three contemporary datasets, the second paper compares comprehensive domains of school readiness between children in HS, pre-K, and other preschools. The third paper compares each state’s pre-K to HS regarding their goals, eligibility criteria, program standards, and funding levels, and uses data from the Abbott Preschool Program to compare effects on learning between pre-K and HS.

Our participants represent over ten institutions, and have multiple disciplines including education, psychology, social work, public policy, and economics. The discussant has been evaluating efficacy of preschool programs for thirty years and was the head of the Early Head Start National Evaluation.

Sub Unit

• School Readiness/Childcare

Chair

• Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Columbia University

Discussant

• John M Love, N/A

Individual Presentations

• Can Research Design Explain Variation in Head Start Research Results? A Meta-analysis of Cognitive and Achievement Outcomes - Presenting Author: Katherine Magnuson, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Hilary Shager, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Holly S. Schindler, University of Washington; Greg J Duncan, University of California, Irvine; Hirokazu Yoshikawa, New York University; Cassandra Hart, University of California-Davis

• Comparing Head Start to Other Care Arrangements in Three Contemporary Datasets - Presenting Author: RaeHyuck Lee, Columbia University; Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Columbia University; Wen-Jui Han, New York University; Jane Waldfogel, Columbia University; Fuhua Zhai, Fordham University

• Head Start and State Pre-K: How Comparable Are They with Respect to Inputs and Outputs? - Presenting Author: W. Steven Barnett, Rutgers University; Min-Jong Youn, Rutgers University; Ellen Frede, Acelero Learning