Table of Contents | Previous | Next |
NATIONAL HEAD START IMPACT STUDY
Purpose
As part of Head Start’s reauthorization in 1998, Congress mandated that the Department of Health and Human Services conduct a national study to determine the impact of Head Start on the children it serves, which led to the National Head Start Impact Study (HSIS). HSIS has two primary goals:
- To compare on a national basis the school readiness of children who are enrolled in Head Start with that of children who do not participate in the program
- To determine under which conditions Head Start works best and for which children
To reach these goals, the study asked two key questions:
- Does Head Start improve children’s school readiness, including approaches to learning, language development and emergent literacy, mathematical ability, physical well-being, motor development, and social and emotional development? In addition, how does Head Start affect parental practices that contribute to children’s school readiness and to what extent are these parental practices related to child development outcomes?
- Under which conditions does Head Start work best and for which children (e.g., differences among children attending Head Start, differences in children’s home environments, different types of Head Start programs available, and availability and quality of other child care and preschool programs)?
For more information:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/index.html
Agencies/Institutions
The National Head Start Impact Study is funded by the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Westat (prime contractor) conducts the study in collaboration with the Urban Institute, the American Institutes for Research, and Decision Information Resources (the subcontractors).
Research/Survey Design
The National Head Start Impact Study is a longitudinal (Head Start through grade 1), experimental study. Data are collected from multiple sources, including individual child assessments, parent interviews, staff surveys, teacher reports, direct observation of the quality of care settings, and collection of community information. Please refer to the population/sample section below for information on sample selection.
For more information:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001, March). Building futures: The Head Start Impact Study research design plan (updated version). Washington, DC: Author. Available at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hs/impact_study/index.html
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/index.html
Date(s)/Periodicity
The Head Start Impact Study began in September 2000 and is scheduled to conclude in December 2006. A pilot test was conducted in 2001. The recruitment of Head Start programs for the full-scale study occurred in spring 2001, and the selection and random assignment of children occurred in the spring and fall 2002. Data collection for the full-scale study began in fall 2002. Data collection will continue through 2006. The data collection schedule is as follows:
| School Year | 02-03 | 03-04 | 04-05 | 05-06 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-k yr/grade for C1 | 3 yr old pre-k | 4 yr old pre-K | K | Gr.1 | |||||
| Pre-k yr/grade for C2 | 4 yr old pre-k | K | Gr. 1 | ||||||
| Data Source | Cohort | Fall | Spring | Fall | Spring | Fall | Spring | Fall | Spring |
| 1 | C1 C2 |
X X |
X X |
X X |
X X |
X | |||
| 2 | C1 C2 |
X X |
X X |
X X |
X X |
X X |
X X |
X | X |
| 3 | C1 C2 |
X | X X |
X | |||||
| 4 | C1 C2 |
X X |
X X |
X X |
X | ||||
| 5 | C1 C2 |
X X |
X X |
X X |
X | ||||
| Legend: 1 = Children 2 = Primary Caregivers 3 = Administrative Records 4 = Program Staff/Other Care Providers and Elementary School Teacher 5 = Quality of Care Settings C = Cohort |
For more information:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001, March). Building futures: The Head Start Impact Study research design plan (updated version). Washington, DC: Author. Available at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hs/impact_study/index.html
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/index.html
Population/Sample
The Head Start Impact Study involves 4,750 (2,829 treatment and 1,921 control) 3- and 4-year-old newly entering Head Start–eligible preschool children across 84 nationally representative grantees and delegate agencies in communities where there are more eligible children and families than can be served by the program. Of the 4,750 children selected for the study, approximately 42 percent are Hispanic, 27 percent are Black, 28 percent are White, and 3 percent are other. Sixty-six percent of the children speak English as their primary language, 31 percent speak Spanish, and 3 percent speak a language other than Spanish or English. Gender is evenly split on the child sample.
The sample selection process began by including all FY 1999-2000 Head Start grantees and delegate agencies in all 50 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico. Programs that were very new, migrant, tribal, or that offered Early Head Start only were excluded. Geographic grantee clusters were developed using a minimum of eight grantees/delegate agencies per cluster, and the clusters were grouped into 25 strata using state pre-K and childcare policy, child race/ethnicity, urban rural location and region as stratifiers. One cluster was selected per strata with probability proportional to size (N=261 grantees/delegate agencies). In the next step, the eligibility of grantees/delegate agencies in each cluster was determined. Those that were closed or merged and those that were saturated (have very few children in the community who are not served) were excluded. Remaining grantees/delegate agencies within the clusters were then stratified based on grantee/delegate agency characteristics including local contextual variables. Three grantees/delegate agencies were randomly selected from each cluster. These grantees/delegate agencies were contacted for participation in the study and the list of centers operating within these grantees/delegate agencies in 2002-2003 was compiled. Center eligibility was determined by excluding saturated centers and combining small centers with nearby centers to create center groups. Using the same stratification characteristics as used for the grantees/delegate agencies, approximately three centers were selected from each grantee/delegate agency based on proportional probabilities (i.e., larger centers have greater chance of selection). The final sample included 378 centers within 84 grantees/delegate agencies. Once the centers were selected, random assignment of children within these centers resulted in 2,829 children in the treatment group and 1,921 children in the comparison group for a total of 4,750 children.
Children selected were considered part of one of two cohorts. Cohort one included children who were 3-years-old in the 2002-2003 school year. Cohort one will be followed through 2005-2006, when they will have reached first grade. Cohort two consists of children who were 4-years-old during the 2002-2003 school year, and thus moving into kindergarten in the 2003-2004 school year. Cohort two will be followed through their first grade year in 2004-2005. For more information:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/index.html
Content Covered
Information collected includes children’s school readiness in various developmental areas (e.g., physical well-being, motor skills, socioemotional development, approaches to learning, language development and emerging literacy, and mathematical ability); child behavior problems, social skills and competencies; parental beliefs and attitudes toward children’s learning; parenting practices; family resources and risk factors; demographic and socio-economic data; participation in and satisfaction with the program; family structure; the structure, process, and quality of Head Start, child care, and school settings; and community formal and informal family support services.
For more information:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/index.html
Availability of Data for Public Use
Data for public use is not yet available.
Reference List for Users’ Guide, Codebooks, Methodology Report(s)
Research design documents are available at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hs/impact_study/index.html
Other available reports include the following:
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2003, March). Building futures: Head Start Impact Study frequently asked questions. Washington, DC: Author.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001, March). Building futures: The Head Start Impact Study research design plan (updated version).Washington,
DC: Author.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001, January). Building futures: The Head Start Impact Study research design plan. Washington, DC:
Author.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2002, June). National Head Start Impact research: Second report to Congress. Washington, DC: Author.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (1999, October). Evaluating Head Start: A recommended framework for studying the impact of the program. Washington, DC: Author.
Ongoing and updated information about the study can be found at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hs/impact_study/index.html.
An interim report for the full-scale study is scheduled for spring/fall 2003. The final report is projected for December 2006. As interim findings and other information regarding the study become available, they will also be posted on the study website.
| Table of Contents | Previous | Next |