Head Start is a preschool program for disadvantaged children which aims to improve their skills so that they can begin schooling on an equal footing with their more advantaged peers. Begun in 1965 as part of President Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” Head Start now serves over 800,000 children in predominantly part-day programs, almost 50 percent of eligible three and four year-old poor children (Children’s Defense Fund, 2000). Over time, federal funding has increased from $96 million in 1965 to $4.7 billion in 1999. There have been dozens of studies of Head Start and closely related preschool and early school enrichment programs. Some studies involve small-scale model programs, others evaluate large-scale public programs which are generally of somewhat lower quality than the model programs. This paper discusses what is known about these early childhood education programs: what they try to do; the extent to which they work; what can be said about their optimal timing, targeting, and content; and the circumstances in which the benefits of providing these programs—ranging from gains to the children to the value of child care provided to the parents—are likely to outweigh the costs. This review of the evidence concludes that these programs have significant short- and medium-term benefits, and that the effects are often greater for more disadvantaged children. Some of the model programs have produced exciting results in terms of improving educational attainment and earnings and reducing welfare dependency and crime. The jury is still out on Head Start, but a simple cost-benefit analysis suggests that Head Start would pay for itself in terms of

https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.15.2.213

Early childhood education programs

Inclusion of children with disabilities in early childhood classrooms with typically developing peers has become a primary service option in early childhood special education. In this paper, I brie...

Preschool Inclusion: What We Know and Where We Go From Here

Qualitative metasynthesis is an intentional and coherent approach to analyzing data across qualitative studies. It is a process that enables researchers to identify a specific research question and then search for, select, appraise, summarize, and combine qualitative evidence to address the research question. This process uses rigorous qualitative methods to synthesize existing qualitative studies to construct greater meaning through an interpretative process. The purpose of this article is to describe qualitative metasynthesis as an innovative research approach for the field of early childhood intervention. Although this is not a new research approach in other fields, the authors suggest that it can offer a promising practice in the field of early childhood intervention. In this article, the authors explore how qualitative metasynthesis can be a practical and effective approach of inquiry as they continue to broaden their understanding about young children with disabilities and their families.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Elizabeth_Erwin/publication/241653658_Understanding_Qualitative_Metasynthesis_Issues_and_Opportunities_in_Early_Childhood_Intervention_Research/links/55a93a0808ae481aa7f97d03.pdf

Understanding Qualitative Metasynthesis: Issues and Opportunities in Early Childhood Intervention Research

We conducted a survey of 125 parents and 95 teachers currently involved in programs integrating children with disabilities into regular preschool and kindergarten classes. In contrast to the predominance of earlier research on mainstreaming and social integration which has focused mainly on children with disabilities, the focus of this study was on outcomes of this arrangement for typically developing children. Results indicated that both parents and teachers of typically developing children perceived important benefits accruing to these children as a result of their Involvement in the integrated program. The data further indicated that common concerns about potential drawbacks to integration, such as reduction in teacher attention to typically developing children, were not generally perceived as problems in these programs. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for broadening the rationale for Integrated programs to include more focused consideration of the potential benefits of mains...

Parent and Teacher Perceptions of Outcomes for Typically Developing Children Enrolled in Integrated Early Childhood Programs: A Statewide Survey.

Children with disabilities have been found to be engaged for less time and at lower levels than children without disabilities. The purpose of this study was to examine further the effects of disability as well as age grouping and adult involvement on engagement, with developmental age serving as a covariate. Thirty-two children without disabilities and 16 children with disabilities were observed in four free-play sessions and four sessions with adult involvement. All observations occurred during regularly scheduled classroom activities. Children with disabilities were found to spend less time interactively engaged with adults, attentionally engaged with peers, and in mastery-level engagement with materials than did children without disabilities; they spent more time passively nonengaged. One finding supported mixed-age groups for less attentional engagement with peers among all children when adults were involved, whereas another finding supported same-age groups for less attentional engagement with adults...

Effects of Classroom Social Structure and Disability on Engagement

This study investigated sources of resistance to the development of integrated preschool programs expressed in concerns raised during interviews and observations of parents, teachers, and administrators involved in system change. Findings suggest that perceived loss of political control over aspects of programs that have been informally negotiated between parents, teachers, and administrators may underlie concems about new programmatic arrangements. The study illustrates the application of qualitative research methods to questions that are of considerable importance to early childhood educators, but that have received relatively little empirical study to date.

Development of Integrated Preschools: A Qualitative Inquiry into Sources of Resistance Among Parents, Administrators, and Teachers

Child care services are provided by profit-oriented businesses, not-forprofit agencies and governmental units. This paper compares goal priorities and operating characteristics of not-for-profit and for-profit child care centres in parts of Canada and the United States. Directors of 292 Pacific Northwest centres responded to a survey about their financial and non-financial operating objectives.

Competing for tots: operating objectives and characteristics of for-profit and not-for-profit child care centres in the Pacific Northwest

In this article, we empirically investigate the validity of the contract failure arguments as applied to a segment of the child care industry However, prior research has focused upon actual quality differences between nonprofit and for-profit providers whereas the theory is concerned with consumers' perceptions of quality differences In the current study, we examine both consumers′ perceptions and actual performance in testing the theory In general, the data provide support for contract failure

Sherrill Richarz

Papers

Development of Integrated Preschools: A Qualitative Inquiry into Sources of Resistance Among Parents, Administrators, and Teachers

Competing for tots: operating objectives and characteristics of for-profit and not-for-profit child care centres in the Pacific Northwest

Asymmetrical information in the provision of human services: an empirical investigation of contract failure theory