Research Offers Competing Data on Effectiveness

Teacher Yomaira Johnson explains the use of scissors to Jesse Erickson, 4. Head Start programs offer comprehensive services to preschoolers.

—Daniel Sheehan for Education Week

Questions over the long-term effectiveness of Head Start—and debates over the research into it—are almost as old the program itself.

As early as 1969, an educational testing and data-reporting organization called the Westinghouse Learning Corp. conducted the first major evaluation of the program, finding that the cognitive and language gains seen among Head Start participants at 1st grade had disappeared by 2nd or 3rd grade.

But critics argued with the study’s design, saying the comparison group may not have been as disadvantaged as the...