Making Head Start Work

By Lawrence J. Schweinhart and David P. Weikart

As Congress tries to complete new authorizing legislation in time for Head Start's 30th anniversary next year, the Clinton Administration is poised to get serious about improving and maintaining the quality of the nation's Head Start programs. The 47-member Advisory Committee on Head Start Quality and Expansion has provided a vision of Head Start as a program that strives for excellence as it expands to serve more children and families. (See Education Week, Jan. 19, 1994.) As this vision is translated into reality, it is good to consider what constitutes quality in this undertaking and what high-quality Head Start programs can...