We Need a New Start for Head Start

By Isabel V. Sawhill & Jon Baron

In January, we learned that the $7 billion Head Start preschool program produces far fewer positive effects on participants’ lives than its advocates have assumed. A rigorous study found that the program, after producing some initial gains during preschool, had almost no effect on children’s cognitive, social-emotional, or health outcomes at the end of 1st grade, compared with a control group of children whose families had access only to the usual community services. ( "Head Start Study Finds Brief Learning Gains," Jan. 14, 2010.)

It would be a mistake to jump to the conclusion that early-childhood education never works. Clearly some programs, including some individual Head Start centers, do. This is the 10th instance since 1990 in which an entire federal social program has been evaluated using the scientific “gold standard” method of randomly assigning individuals to a program or control group. Nine of those evaluations found weak or no positive effects, for efforts such as the $300 million Upward Bound program (academic preparation for at-risk high school students), and the $1.5 billion Job Corps program (job training for disadvantaged youths). Only one—Early Head Start, a sister program to Head Start for younger children—was found to produce meaningful but modest effects.

Meanwhile, the problems these programs are designed to address have not gone away. The nation’s official poverty rate in 2008 was 13.2 percent— higher than in 1973. Similarly, the country has made very limited progress in raising K-12 reading, math, or science achievement over the past 35 years, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress’ long-term-trend reporting. Advances have been made in some areas of social policy, such as reducing rates of teenage pregnancy and violent crime, but in many key areas...