HEAD START WORKS !!!

Head Start began in 1965 as part of the War on Poverty program launched by president Lyndon B. Johnson. Nearly half the nation's poor people were children under age 12, and Head Start was developed to respond as early as possible to the needs of poor children. A few privately funded preschool programs for poor children in inner cities and rural areas showed marked success in raising children's intellectual skills. Many low-income children also had unrecognized health problems and had not been immunized. Head Start was imagined as a comprehensive program that would provide health and nutritional services to poor children, while also developing their cognitive skills. The program aimed to involve parents as well. Many parents of children in the program were employed as teachers' aides so they would understand what their children were learning and help carry on that learning at home.War on Povertypreschool unrecognized

HEAD START WORKS!!! There is clear need for the Early Childhood Education community and the world at large to understand the positive works of Head Start and to recognize the children and families that have been positively impacted by their involvement in the program. Like many other early childhood programs, there has been research conducted on the benefits of enrolling early childhood programs such as Head Start and the long term effect on the participants. This has proven time and time again that investing in the in children at an early age gives us the most return on investment. Although if there have been both positive and negative research on the long term impact of Head Start, I believe that the best way to demonstrate the benefits of enrollment in the Head Start or Early Head Start program is to ask the people who can attest to the difference enrollment into the program has made on their lives.

HEAD START WORKS!!! Things that have hurt us: Head Start Impact Study and Follow-up, Head Start provides comprehensive early child development services to low-income children, their families, and communities. In 1998, Congress determined, as part of Head Start's reauthorization, that the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) should conduct a national study to determine the impact of Head Start on the children it serves. In October 2000, DHHS awarded a contract to Westat in collaboration with the Urban Institute, American Institutes for Research, and Decision Information Resources to conduct this study through spring of the children’s first grade year. GAO report HEAD START Undercover Testing Finds Fraud and Abuse at Selected Head Start Centers GAO received allegations of fraud and abuse involving two Head Start nonprofit grantees in the Midwest and Texas. Allegations include manipulating recorded income to make over- income applicants appear under-income, encouraging families to report that they were homeless when they were not, enrolling more than 10 percent of over-income children, and counting children as enrolled in more than one center at a time. GAO confirmed that one grantee operated several centers with more than 10 percent over-income students, and the other grantee manipulated enrollment data to over-report the number of children enrolled. GAO is still investigating the other allegations reported.

Roland Martin TV 1 report The Choice: Breakdown of President Obama and Mitt Romney’s Early Childhood Education Plan HEAD START WORKS!!!

In spite of the ups and downs in achievement, long- term studies continue to reach the same conclusion: Head Start results in significant improvements in a wide variety of educational outcomes and life outcomes, such as increased high school graduation rates; fewer grade repetitions; fewer kids going into special education classes; higher vocabulary levels; better emotional development; reduced mortality rates of young kids; families moving out of poverty, and a significant impact on long-term outcomes of adults 19 years or older who attended Head Start. - Yamina Vinci

HEAD START WORKS!!! Head Start works. We have four decades of evidence that Head Start works and the report that came out earlier this year shows that Head Start children moved forward, that they have gains from their Head Start year. It raises concerns about what happens to them when they leave Head Start. -Dylan Matthews

HEAD START WORKS!!!