Head Start has potentially positive effects on general reading achievement for 3- and 4-year-old children, based on parent-rated emergent literacy¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · reviewr3·q3
Currency · newest study 2015 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q3 i? Head Start produced a statistically significant positive effect on children's PELS ratings for both the 3-year-old and 4-year-old cohorts at the end of the intervention year. → What Works Clearinghouse 2015
Evidence¶
What Works Clearinghouse 2015¶
What Works Clearinghouse, U.S. Department of Education. (2015). Head Start: WWC intervention report. http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ohs
q3 · i? · review · r3
The WWC report summarizes the DHHS ACF (2010) randomized controlled trial, in which children were randomly assigned to be offered Head Start or a comparison group. The average improvement index for general reading achievement was +13 percentile points (range +12 to +14), and the WWC confirmed a "statistically significant and positive effect of Head Start" on PELS ratings.
"The authors reported, and the WWC confirmed, a statistically significant and positive effect of Head Start on children’s PELS ratings for both the 3-year-old and 4-year-old cohorts at the end of the intervention year."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- The evidence base for Head Start's school-readiness effects is small: only one of 40 eligible studies met WWC group design standards — related
- Substantial crossover occurred in the Head Start impact study comparison group, with 17.3% of the 3-year-old and 13.9% of the 4-year-old comparison groups enrolling in non-study Head Start programs — related
- Head Start shows no discernible effects on mathematics achievement for 4-year-old children — related
- Supplemental analyses show statistically significant positive Head Start effects on one social-emotional subscale and two mothers' race/ethnicity subgroup comparisons for the 3-year-old cohort — related
- Head Start shows no discernible effects on social-emotional development for 3- and 4-year-old children — related
- Headsprout Early Reading has a statistically significant positive effect on the oral language of at-risk preschool children — related
- Preschool PATHS increases emotion knowledge and parent- and teacher-rated social competence in Head Start children — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
head-start-potentially-positive-reading-achievement |
title |
Head Start has potentially positive effects on general reading achievement for 3- and 4-year-old children, based on parent-rated emergent literacy |
description |
Head Start has potentially positive effects on general reading achievement for 3- and 4-year-old children, based on parent-rated emergent literacy |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2015 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-07 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — what-works-clearinghouse-2015 |
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