How Effective is Head Start?
Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children
Head Start has been in the news lately, both because of the effects of sequestration on the program and because of discussion about its effectiveness in light of proposals to expand early education. W. Steven Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University, sheds light on the research in arecent column on the Washington Post’s Answer Sheet blog.
Barnett concludes that Head Start is neither as ineffective as its critics contend nor as effective as its staunchest defenders claim. “Which side is correct?” he asks. “Neither.”
Barnett discusses the recent report by the Department of Health and Human Services that critics say show the benefits of Head Start fade by third grade. Although the study, based on a large-scale randomized trial, is the best to date on Head Start, Barnett cautions that it “does not say what critics claim it says.”
One issue, he notes, is the random assignments. Some children assigned to