Head Start & Early Head Start
Research sponsored through Head Start funding over the past decade has provided valuable information not only to guide program improvement in Head Start itself, but also to guide the field of early childhood programming and early childhood development. Dozens of Head Start programs have collaborated with researchers in making significant contributions in terms of program innovation and evaluation, as well as the use of systematic data collection, analysis and interpretation in program operations.
Featured Resources
Projects on this Topic
The Secretary of Health and Human Services is required by section 649(g)(1) of Public Law 92-463 to convene an expert advisory committee to review and make recommendations on the design of the study or studies that provide national analysis of the...
This grant cooperative agreement supported a Head Start American Indian - Alaska Native Research Center at the University of Colorado at Denver – Health Sciences Center. The purpose of the Center was to provide leadership and offer support in the...
In 2001, the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, began a two-year initiative to review existing information, collect new data, and explore research needs for American Indian-Alaska Native Head Start...
The American Indian and Alaska Native Early Childhood Needs Assessment Project (AI/AN EC Needs Assessment) seeks to lay the foundation for understanding the need for early childhood services in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. The project outlines a series of designs for future studies that will inform a national assessment of the unmet need for early childhood care, education, and home visiting services (prenatal to age 5) in tribal communities...
This contract supported the development of a literature review, conceptual model, and tool designed to measure teachers’ use of child assessments for individualizing instruction to support optimal development in early childhood settings...
The Center for Early Care and Education Research: Dual Language Learners (CECER-DLL) is a cooperative agreement awarded by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. The primary goal of the Center...
The FPTRQ project developed new measures to assess the quality of the relationship between families and providers/teachers of early care and education for children birth to 5 years of age. The measures examines this relationship...
The Early Learning Mentor Coach Study (ELMC) was a descriptive study of professional development grants awarded competitively to Head Start programs. The Head Start Early Learning Mentor and Coach grants were funded in September of 2010 to 131...
In the fall of 2011, the Office of Head Start (OHS) significantly expanded its accountability provisions with the establishment of the Head Start Designation Renewal System (DRS). In response to requirements in the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007...
The Head Start CARES (Classroom-based Approaches and Resources for Emotion and Social skill promotion) is a large-scale group-randomized trial of three social-emotional program enhancements within Head Start classrooms. The project includes an...
The project developed design options for a research study providing evidence for the most efficient practices in coaching within the context of Head Start professional development systems. Coaching is one mechanism...
The purpose of this study is to help the Administration for Children and Families better understand the experiences and perspectives of families and staff participating in Head Start and Early Head Start, particularly around the topic of family...
The goals of the Head Start Health Manager Descriptive Survey include 1) to describe the characteristics of Health Managers and related staff in Head Start (HS) and Early Head Start (EHS) programs; 2) to identify the current landscape of health programs and services being offered to children and families...
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...
The purpose of this project was to develop a literature review and conceptual model describing the key factors in organizational and management systems that promote effective early childhood practice with an emphasis on the use of data for continuous...
The Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) awarded five research grants in 1997 as the core component of a new young children's mental health research initiative designed to develop...
The overall goal of this year’s Head Start University Partnerships research grant program is to contribute to the knowledge base regarding the role that Head Start can play in promoting family well-being, including health, safety, financial...
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) awarded seven cooperative agreements in April 2008 under the Head Start University Partnership Research Grants: Strategies for Developing Head Start...
ACF’s Hispanic Research Work Group brings together experts in a wide range of content areas relevant to ACF’s mission to assist ACF/OPRE in identifying research priorities concerning low-income, Hispanic families.
The Human Services Research Partnership of the U.S. Virgin Islands (VI) explored issues related to social service needs and public welfare systems in the territory. This cooperative agreement supported partnerships among researchers, local governments, and community-based organizations to define and evaluate research questions relevant to low-income people in the U.S. Virgin Islands and to both the Head Start and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs.
Explore OPRE's project, Integrated Approaches to Supporting Child Development and Improving Family Economic Security, for reports and briefs related to integrated (two-generation / whole-family) approaches to meeting the needs of children, parents, and families together.
The National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) documented the nation's utilization and availability of early care and education (including school-age care) in 2012, in order to deepen the understanding of the extent to which families' needs and preferences coordinate well with provider's offerings and constraints. The experiences of low-income families were of special interest as they are the focus of a significant component of early care and education/school-age (ECE/SA) public policy.
This project investigated how existing work on racial and ethnic disparities could inform more accurate identification and interpretation of ethnic and racial differences in programs administered by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). Through this work, this project...
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) awarded one cooperative agreement in August 2011 as part of the funding announcement “Research Center to Support Secondary Analyses of Head Start Impact Study Data.” This grant, awarded to New York University, supported secondary analyses of the Head Start Impact Study to answer questions related to the characteristics of effective Head Start centers, classrooms, and teachers.
The purpose of this task order is to generate knowledge about how Head Start grantees develop and utilize school readiness goals. The contract will support a study of the process used by Head Start grantees to define, measure, and prioritize their...
The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) is undertaking a descriptive study to document the approaches and strategies utilized by tribal organizations awarded cooperative agreements under the Coordination of Tribal TANF and Child Welfare...
In response to a requirement in the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-134), ACF initiated this project in 2008 to develop a report on limited English proficient (LEP) children and their families participating in Head Start...
The Language Minority Roundtable was a working meeting where invited participants engaged in critical dialogue regarding how research can support efforts of policymakers and practitioners to serve the language and literacy needs of young language...
This compendium was created in response to the 2007 Head Start reauthorization requirement that programs use reliable and valid early childhood assessments and developmental screeners that are appropriate for the populations they serve. The compendium...
Technology has become increasingly prevalent in early care and education settings, yet little is known about the effectiveness, function, and requirements for technologies that are available to early childhood programs. The purpose of this project was to review the knowledge base related to the use of technology to support the practice of early childhood practitioners who work directly with children and families. The review was conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago...
In 1997, the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) was launched to provide descriptive, nationally representative information on the characteristics, experiences, and development of Head Start children and families, and the characteristics of the Head Start programs and staff who serve them. FACES has historically not included Region XI, whose programs are designed to serve predominantly American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) children and families.
Descriptive study of the range of existing state and local approaches to coordinating early care and education services with other health and human services for children and families with low incomes.
The goal of the Assessing the Implementation and Cost of High Quality Early Care and Education (ECE-ICHQ) project is to:
- Produce technically sound, systematic measures of the implementation and costs of education and care in center-based settings that serve children birth to age 5
- Produce implementation and cost measures that can be used with existing measures of quality to examine the variation in ECE center capacities and resources that can make a difference in the experiences of children
The purpose of this project is to assist the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), states, and localities in understanding what drives workforce turnover in the early care and education (ECE) field and to evaluate promising strategies to support recruitment and retention of a qualified ECE workforce. The dynamics contributing to high rates of staff departures in some center-based ECE programs and decreasing supply of family child care providers, including individuals paid to provide noncustodial care, are not well understood.
Project Overview
The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Implementation Research and Evaluation Grants program provides CCDF Lead Agencies the opportunity to (1) plan for and (2) evaluate initiatives and policies related to the CCDBG Act of 2014.
The Child Care and Early Education Policy and Research Analysis (CCEEPRA) Project is a contract to support the provision of expert consultation, assessment, and analysis in child care and early education policy and research to the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE), in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). The CCEEPRA project conducts various activities related to...
The Child and Family Data Archive (CFData) is the place to discover, access, and analyze data on young children, their families and communities, and the programs that serve them. OPRE funds numerous data collection efforts through research studies on a wide range of early care and education (ECE) topics within and across child care, Head Start, and home visiting.
OPRE’s child and family development work includes research and evaluation projects primarily concerned with child care and child welfare. This portfolio additionally examines the culturally diverse experiences of children and families served by ACF programs.
This project examines how and why Head Start grantees prepare for and engage in enrollment conversions and aims to identify facilitators and barriers to the provision of high quality Early Head Start services that meet community needs.
The purpose of this project is to explore how child care and Head Start programs can improve the quality of services received by young children, while institutionalizing continuous quality improvement activities. The project will design and assess the feasibility of implementing a specific approach to continuous quality improvement (CQI), the Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC), to promote the uptake and success of evidence-based practices around social and emotional learning (SEL) in both child care and Head Start settings.
The Early Care and Education Leadership Study (ExCELS), funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families, has three goals: (1) fill the definitional and measurement gaps to understand what leadership looks like as defined by who participates in leadership in center-based ECE settings and the ways in which leaders can improve quality experiences for children in ECE settings, (2) develop a short-form measure of ECE leadership, and (3) identify actionable leadership quality improvement (QI) initiatives and methods of evaluating them.
The Early Care and Education Research Scholars (ECERS): Head Start Dissertation Grant program is designed to build research capacity in and knowledge of effective early childhood interventions with low-income children and families. The grant program provides support for dissertation research conducted by graduate students working in partnership with local Head Start or Early Head Start programs.
Explore Baby FACES reports, data tables, briefs, and other publications about Early Head Start programs, centers, home visitors, classrooms, teachers, children and families.
The overall goal the Early Head Start University Partnerships research grant program is to contribute to the knowledge base regarding how Early Head Start (EHS) and other early care and education programs can promote and improve early child development by supporting both parenting and caregiving. Researchers are working in partnership with one or more EHS center-based programs and/or EHS-Child Care Partnership programs...
Project Overview
Since its origins, Head Start has emphasized delivering comprehensive services that align with children and families’ diverse strengths and needs. A strength of Head Start’s approach has been its dual focus on offering comprehensive services that support both children and their families to improve child development in the long-term: coupling early care and education, nutrition, health, and social supports for children with parenting, self-sufficiency, health/mental health, and leadership services for parents.
Descriptive, nationally representative information on the characteristics, experiences, and development of Head Start children and families, and the characteristics of the Head Start programs and staff who serve them.
In this project, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is exploring the application of Human-centered Design (HCD) across its service delivery programs at the federal, state, and local levels. To date, little is known regarding what HCD looks like in the context of human services, the requirements for implementation across a range of programs; the measurable outcomes and effectiveness of HCD approaches; the evaluability of HCD approaches; or the sustainability of HCD approaches.
The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation worked in conjunction with the Office of Head Start and the Employment and Training Administration to develop, pilot, and implement a Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) Supplement to the National Agricultural Workers’ Survey (NAWS) from 2009-2016. Even after the supplement was discontinued, the NAWS continues to provide extensive reports of demographic data regarding migrant and seasonal agricultural young children whose families are eligible for MSHS.
National surveys conducted in 2012 of child care and early education programs, the early childhood workforce, and households with young children under age 13-years allowing for analyses of supply of and demand for child care and early education.
The Network of infant/toddler Researchers (NitR) consortium brings together leading applied researchers with policymakers and technical assistance providers responsible for overseeing and supporting early childhood programs serving families during pregnancy and the first three years of life.
The Q-CCIIT PD Tools project developed a research-based professional development system called We Grow Together. As part of We Grow Together, teachers and caregivers work with their professional development providers (mentors, coaches, supervisors) using resources delivered on an interactive website.
Explore OPRE's Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Human Services Analysis Execution Project for information on OPRE's approach to identifying racial and ethnic disparities in human services programs administered by the Administration for Children and Families.
The Secondary Analyses of Data on Early Care and Education Grants aim to support researchers conducting secondary analyses of data to address key questions of relevance to the goals and outcomes of programs administered by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), in particular the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and Head Start/Early Head Start (HS/EHS).
In 2013, OPRE commissioned four interrelated reports on self-regulation and toxic stress from a team at the Center for Child and Social Policy at Duke University. That team and other experts have since created multiple practice-oriented resources grounded in the initial reports. Together, these reports and resources comprise the ’Self-Regulation and Toxic Stress Series.’
Learn about this study of coaching practices as implemented in Head Start and center-based and family child care settings.
The Quality of Caregiver-Child Interactions for Infants and Toddlers (Q-CCIIT) observation tool is a reliable and valid research-based observational tool that measures the quality of interactions between infants and toddlers...
This is the landing page for the Study of Disability Services Coordinators and Inclusion in Head Start.
Explore the Touchpoints for Addressing Substance Use In Home Visiting page for a conceptual model and review of the literature on how home visiting programs can support families dealing with substance use issues.
Tribal Early Childhood Research Center (TRC)
Explore the Tribal Early Childhood Research Center (TRC)'s goals for addressing gaps in early childhood research with American Indian and Alaska Native families through partnerships with tribal Head Start, Early Head Start, child care, and home visiting programs.
Experts agree that the quality of children’s early care and educational experiences is critical for promoting children’s development. However, there is a lack of consensus around which aspects of quality matter most, what levels of quality are essential for promoting children’s development, and how quality enhancement efforts should be designed in order to reliably promote children’s developmental outcomes, particularly in light of the varied landscape of child care, Head Start, and early care and education nationally.