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INTRODUCTION
As described in Chapter I, the Early Head Start Research Consortium comprises the 17 programs participating in the evaluation, ACYF's Head Start Bureau and Commissioner's Office of Research and Evaluation, 15 university research teams funded by ACYF to work with 16 of the research programs, and the national team of Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. and Columbia University's Center for Children and Families, Teachers College. Local researchers also participated in many national evaluation activities (including collecting cross-site data--see Appendix B). The Consortium facilitated collaboration on issues relating to assessment measures and procedures, analysis and reports, the use of research and evaluation data, and publication policies. Local research teams conducted local research on a variety of topics. In general, however, they focused on in-depth research into understanding the local context and the role of mediators and moderators of program effects. Their research often encompassed measures that supplemented those used in the national, cross-site data collection. They worked closely with their program partners (as did the national team).
The Early Head Start programs helped with all phases of the study from random assignment and locating families for data collection to participation in discussions of analysis and reporting. Local research teams and their program partners have been analyzing data and presenting and publishing descriptive findings for some time. With the release of this report, in some instances they now also report local findings of program effects.
This appendix presents brief write-ups of 19 studies from 11 of the local research teams and from staff in 4 of the programs. The Consortium established a careful peer-review process, which resulted in contributions reflecting a variety of perspectives on the experiences of Early Head Start programs, families, and children. Each of these brief papers expands on the synopses included as boxes in the chapters of this report. They appear alphabetically, by first author.
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