Early Years

Whether Head Start has long-lasting benefits for children has been an issue of considerable debate among both educators and government officials for years.

Findings from a new study by the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation in Ypsilanti, Mich., released last month, are unlikely to resolve the debate. The study, begun in the late 1980s and completed in the late '90s, found evidence that the program can help some children—particularly girls— succeed in school and avoid crime as they grow up. But the researchers found no such effects for boys.

Earlier studies of the popular federal preschool program have produced mixed results, with some finding only short-term payoffs or almost none at all. Other research has concluded that the benefits begin to fade once children are...