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##  Recent Evidence on Preschool Programs. ERIC Digest.                          

Growing evidence indicates that high-quality preschool child                    development programs contribute to the short- and long-term                     development of children living in poverty. Recent literature reviews            summarize this evidence (Barnett, in press; Currie, 2000; Karoly et             al., 1998). Some recent studies have been experimental, involving               random assignment of children and families to program and no-program            groups and providing the most unequivocal evidence of program                   effects. Other recent studies have been quasi- experimental,                    involving a no-program group not randomly assigned or no comparison             group at all; these studies never completely rule out alternative               explanations, but they do permit examination of evidence in                     situations where experimental design was impossible. This Digest                summarizes recently reported experimental and quasi-experimental                studies of Head Start and similar programs. RECENTLY REPORTED                 EXPERIMENTAL STUDIESAn evaluation of the Head Start                         Comprehensive Child Development Program (Goodson et al., 2000)                  randomly assigned 4,410 children and families living in poverty at              21 sites to this program or no program and followed them for 5                  years. Although the program's comprehensive services centered on the            assignment to each family of a case manager to help them meet their             needs, only 58% of the program group actually met with a case                   manager, as did 18% of the control group, due to participation in               other programs. Perhaps partly because this group difference in case            management was only 40% rather than the 100% that might be expected,            the study found no statistically significant effects on either child            or parent outcomes, raising the question of whether families who use            early childhood programs really profit from case management. 
An               evaluation of some 3,000 infants and toddlers and their low-income              families in the Early Head Start program, the federal program that              began in 1995, has found program effects through age                            2 (Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, 2001b). When                compared to a randomly assigned control group, Early Head Start                 children did modestly but significantly better on measures of                   cognitive, language, and social-emotional development, and their                parents scored significantly better than control-group parents on               measures of parenting behavior and knowledge of infant-toddler                  development. The evaluation is continuing, to see if these early                effects are sustained as children grow older. 
Two evaluations of              the Even Start Family Literacy Program (Planning and Evaluation                 Service, 1998) randomly assigned children and families to Even Start            or not. Somewhat greater percentages of the Even Start group than               the control group received various services, for example, 95% versus            60% participating in early childhood education. Consequently, both              groups experienced gains, with the Even Start group experiencing                some greater gains-the pattern for adult literacy, adult GED                    attainment (22% vs. 6% in one of the studies), cognitive stimulation            and emotional support by the family, and children's vocabulary. Even            Start children improved their basic school readiness skills (e.g.,              recognition of colors, shapes, and sizes), but their non-Even Start             peers caught up with them a year later, a common finding for                    intellectual achievement in preschool programs. 
The Carolina                  Abecedarian Project study randomly assigned 111 infants from                    low-income families to program and no-program groups and collected              data on 104 of them at age 21 (Campbell et al., 2001). The full-time            child care program focused on game-like educational activities to               foster young children's cognitive, motor, and social development.               This is the first such study to find program benefits throughout                participants' schooling on their intellectual performance and                   academic achievement. Other findings include more participants being            in school at age 21 (40% vs. 20%), more ever attending a 4-year                 college (35% vs. 14%), and a higher average age at birth of first               child (19.1 vs. 17.7). 
In 1997, the U.S. General Accounting Office            observed that no studies had evaluated effects of typical (rather               than model) Head Start programs using experimental designs that                 randomly assigned children to program and no-program groups. Head               Start's 1998 reauthorization empaneled an Advisory Committee on Head            Start Research and Evaluation (1999) to recommend a framework for               studying the impact of Head Start. The National Head Start Impact               Study, now under way, should provide useful results in a few                    years. RECENTLY REPORTED QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL STUDIESFACES is a             continuing longitudinal study of 3,200 children and families who                entered 40 representative Head Start programs in fall 1997. Although            the study did not have a no-program group for comparison,                       results (Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, 2001a)                showed that Head Start children improved their vocabulary, writing              skills, and social skills more than expected on these measures for              children their age and continued to have better literacy and                    mathematics skills during their kindergarten year. Parents were                 found to be very satisfied with Head Start, more so than for other              federal programs. Head Start classrooms received high-quality                   ratings by trained outside observers, and most Head Start teachers              were found to have the requisite teaching qualifications. 
Gilliam             and Zigler (2000) report that as of 1998, evaluations had been                  conducted on 13 of the 33 state preschool programs. They summarize              these evaluations as finding modest support for positive program                effects on children's developmental performance, school performance             and attendance, and reduced percentages of children held back a                 grade. Similarly, an evaluation of North Carolina's Smart Start                 programs, not included in this review, found evidence of modest                 improvements in children's skills as rated by teachers at                       kindergarten entry (Smart Start Evaluation Team, 1999). 
Oden,                 Schweinhart, and Weikart (2000) studied 622 22-year-olds born in                poverty who had or had not attended Head Start. Of the females at               the site that permitted such comparisons, more of the Head Start                graduates graduated from high school or got a GED (95% vs. 81%), and            only one-third as many had been arrested for a crime (5% vs. 15%).              At the same site, the study compared children who had participated              in regular Head Start classes to children in Head Start classes                 using the High/Scope curriculum framework, in which teachers                    systematically supported children's intentional learning activities.            Both males and females who had experienced High/Scope rather than               regular classes achieved a higher elementary grade point                        average (3.2 vs. 2.4 on a 4-point scale) and had only 38% as many               criminal convictions by age 22 (0.54 vs. 1.41 convictions per                   person). Independent analyses suggested that program effects were               probably underestimated. 
Currie and Thomas (1999) examined the                effects of Head Start in the representative National Longitudinal               Survey of Youth by comparing Head Start children to their siblings              who did not attend Head Start. They identified who had attended Head            Start by asking the children's mothers. Focusing on 750 Latino                  children, they found that relative to their siblings, Head Start                children had higher vocabulary and mathematics test scores and were             less likely to repeat a grade. Applying the same method to the                  nationally representative Panel Study of Income Dynamics data,                  Garces, Thomas, and Currie (2000) found long-term effects of Head               Start programs in a sample of 255 young adults on the high school               completion and college attendance of Whites and the crime                       convictions of African Americans. 
A follow-up study of the                    federally funded Chicago Child-Parent Centers (Reynolds et al.,                 2001) examined 1,539 20-year-olds, two-thirds of whom attended this             comprehensive, part-day preschool program at ages 3 and 4. Program              participants achieved a higher rate of high school completion (50%              vs. 39%) and lower rate of juvenile arrests (17% vs. 25%). The                  program provided an economic return of $7.10 per dollar                         invested, $3.83 of it to taxpayers. 
In summary, recently reported             short-term studies have questioned the value of case management as              part of early childhood programs, provided guarded support for                  infant- toddler programs, and found that programs for 4-year-olds               contribute to children's readiness to enter school and remain on                grade. Recently reported long-term studies have found evidence of               good preschool programs improving high school graduation rates and              reducing the criminal activity of certain categories of                         participants. FOR MORE INFORMATIONAdministration on Children,             Youth, and Families. Commissioner's Office of Research and                      Evaluation and the Head Start Bureau. (2001a). HEAD START FACES:                LONGITUDINAL FINDINGS ON PROGRAM PERFORMANCE. THIRD PROGRESS REPORT.            Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.                     Available:                                                                      http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/core/pubs_reports/faces/meas_99_int            ro.html. 
Administration on Children, Youth, and Families.                     Commissioner's Office of Research and Evaluation and the Head Start             Bureau. (2001b). Building their futures: How Early Head Start                   programs are enhancing the lives of infants and toddlers in                     low-income families: Summary report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department            of Health & Human Services. Available:                                          http://www2.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/hsb/EHS/. ED 448 894. 
Advisory              Committee on Head Start Research and Evaluation. (1999, October).               EVALUATING HEAD START: A RECOMMENDED FRAMEWORK FOR STUDYING THE                 IMPACT OF THE HEAD START PROGRAM. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of            Health & Human Services.  Available:                                            http://www2.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/hsb/hsreac/octrep.htm. 
Barnett,             W. S. (in press). Does Head Start have lasting cognitive effects? In            E. Zigler & S. Styfco (Eds.), THE HEAD START DEBATES (FRIENDLY AND              OTHERWISE). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 
Campbell, F. A.,            Pungello, E. P., Miller-Johnson, S., Burchinal, M., & Ramey, C.                 T. (2001). The development of cognitive and academic abilities:                 Growth curves from an early childhood educational experiment.                   DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, 37(2), 231-242. See also:                             http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~abc/. 
Currie, J. (2000, April). EARLY                 CHILDHOOD INTERVENTION PROGRAMS: WHAT DO WE KNOW? Chicago: Joint                Center for Poverty Research. Available:                                         http://www.brook.edu/es/research/projects/cr/doc/currie20000401.pdf.            ED 451 915. 
Currie, J., & Thomas, D. (1999). Does Head Start help             Hispanic children? JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS, 74(2),                          235-262. 
Garces, E., Thomas, D., & Currie, J. (2000, December).               Longer-term effects of Head Start. Working Paper 8054. Cambridge,               MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. Available:                            http://www.nber.org/papers/w8054. 
Gilliam, W. S., & Zigler, E.                F. (2000). A critical meta-analysis of all evaluations of                       state-funded preschool from 1977 to 1998: Implications for policy,              service delivery, and program implementation. EARLY CHILDHOOD                   RESEARCH QUARTERLY, 15(4), 441-473. 
Goodson, B. D., Layzer, J. I.,            St. Pierre, R. G., Bernstein, L. S., & Lopez, M. (2000).                        Effectiveness of a comprehensive, five-year family support program              for low-income families: Findings from the Comprehensive Child                  Development Program. EARLY CHILDHOOD RESEARCH QUARTERLY, 15(1),                 5-39. 
Karoly, L. A., Greenwood, P. W., Everingham, S. S., Hoube,              J., Kilburn, M. R., Rydell, C. P., Sanders, M., & Chiesa, J. (1998).            INVESTING IN OUR CHILDREN: WHAT WE KNOW AND DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE                COSTS AND BENEFITS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD INTERVENTIONS. Washington, DC:            Rand Corporation. Available: http://                                            www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR898/. ED 419 621. 
Oden, S.,                    Schweinhart, L. J., & Weikart, D. P. (2000). INTO ADULTHOOD: A STUDY            OF THE EFFECTS OF HEAD START. Ypsilanti, MI: High/Scope Press. ED               444 730. 
Planning and Evaluation Service. (1998). EVEN START:                 EVIDENCE FROM THE PAST AND A LOOK TO THE FUTURE. Washington, DC:                U.S. Department of Education. Available:                                        http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EvenStart/. ED 427 890. 
Reynolds, A. J.,               Temple, J. A., Robertson, D. L., & Mann, E. A. (2001, May 9).                   Long-term effects of an early childhood intervention on educational             achievement and juvenile arrest: A 15-year follow-up of low-income              children in public schools. JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL                     ASSOCIATION, 285(18), 2339-2346. See also:                                      http://www.waisman.wisc.edu/cls/index.html. 
Smart Start Evaluation            Team. (1999, September). A SIX-COUNTY STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF SMART             START CHILD CARE ON KINDERGARTEN ENTRY SKILLS. Chapel Hill, NC:                 Frank Porter Graham Child  Development Center (Report to North                  Carolina Dept. of Health and Human Services). Available                         http://www.fpg.unc.edu/%7Esmartstart/reports/six-county.PDF.  ED 433            154. 
U.S. General Accounting Office. (1997). HEAD START: RESEARCH             PROVIDES LITTLE INFORMATION ON IMPACT OF CURRENT PROGRAM.                       Washington, DC: U.S. General Accounting Office. See also:                       http://www.gao.gov, search for HEHS-97-59. ED 407                               167. 
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All                   ERIC/EECE Digests are available free in original printed form                   directly from the clearinghouse. For additional information on this             topic, please contact ERIC/EECE directly at [email protected] or                1-800-583-4135.                                                              **Title:** Recent Evidence on Preschool Programs. ERIC Digest.                          **Document Type:** Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); **Available From:** ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education,                 Children's Research Center, University of Illinois, 51 Gerty Dr.,               Champaign, IL 61820-7469. Tel: 800-583-4135 (Toll Free); Tel:                   217-333-1386; Fax: 217-333-3767; Web site: http://ericeece.org;                 e-mail: [email protected]. For full text:                                       http://ericeece.org/pubs/digests.html.                                       **Descriptors:** Educational Quality, Family Literacy,  Outcomes of Education,                   Poverty,  Preschool Education,  Program Effectiveness, Program                  Evaluation, Young Children                                                   **Identifiers:** Carolina Abecedarian Project NC, Chicago Child Parent Centers IL,               Early Head Start, ERIC Digests, Even Start, Project Head Start,                 Smart Start NC                                                               
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