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Contents of Report
This report, consisting of two volumes, presents early estimates of the impact of Head Start; however, much is yet to be done in this complex study to explore all the possible questions of policy and program interest.
Volume 1 consists of eight chapters. Chapter 1 presents the study background, including an overview of the study objectives, sample design, data collection, and response rates. Chapter 2 provides further details about the study sample, including a description of child and parent characteristics measured before and after random assignment. To provide a context in which to understand the impact findings, Chapter 3 examines the impact of Head Start on the types of preschool and child care settings that parents selected for their children as well as descriptive information on the characteristics of different types of early care arrangements. Chapter 4 presents an overview of the methods used for analyzing impacts on children and families.
The remaining four chapters present the results of the impact analyses. The impact of Head Start on children’s cognitive development is presented in Chapter 5, focusing on six different domains of cognitive outcomes (i.e., pre-reading skills, pre-writing skills, vocabulary knowledge, oral comprehension and phonological awareness, early math skills, and parent report of children’s literacy). The impact of Head Start on children’s social-emotional development is presented in Chapter 6, focusing on parent-reported measures of social competencies, positive approaches to learning, and problem behaviors. Chapter 7 presents findings on the impact of Head Start on children’s health status and access to health services, and Chapter 8 presents findings on the impact of Head Start on parenting practices in the areas of educational activities, discipline practices, and child safety practices. There are also technical appendices that present further details about the study design, the study sample, and analytic techniques.
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