While conducting a needs assessment for a large Midwestern social service organization, the authors asked 252 preschool children from six Head Start programs what they like best about school. They wanted to reveal how children perceived their school and what they liked best about school--more specifically, what were their favorite areas and…

Researchers have examined the impact of family on child literacy among low-income African American families and preschoolers considered to be at risk for not being ready for kindergarten. Quantitative studies identify family-parental variables associated with poorer literacy outcomes, whereas qualitative studies detail family practices that…

Maternal education is one of the strongest predictors of children's academic outcomes. One possible explanation for this is that more highly educated mothers more frequently engage in parenting practices that may promote children's later cognitive development; however, most of this evidence is correlational. This study uses Head Start Impact Study…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters program when implemented within Head Start programs by measuring children's language proficiency scores. Participants were kindergarteners concurrently enrolled in both a Head Start program and the Home Instruction for Parents of…

Research Findings: The present study examined associations between children's classroom interactions and teachers' perceptions of teacher-child relationships during 1 year of preschool. Teachers (n = 223) reported their perceptions of closeness and conflict in their teacher-child relationships in the fall and spring. Children's (n = 895) positive…

Children's life experiences can position their exploration of global cultural communities within early childhood classrooms. Some early childhood educators, however, are concerned that many young children do not have direct experience of global cultures and thus believe that differences between cultural practices will be confusing to young…

This study examined the concurrent relations of English (EL) and heritage language (HL) proficiency to executive functions (EF) among low-income dual language learners (DLLs) from immigrant families. In a sample of 90 children (age = 38-70 months) from Chinese-speaking Chinese American and Spanish-speaking Mexican American families recruited from…

Head Start is a national program that promotes school readiness by enhancing the social and cognitive development of children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social, and other services to enrolled children and families. The Head Start program provides comprehensive child development services to economically disadvantaged…

Head Start is the oldest and largest federally funded preschool program in the United States. From its inception in 1965, Head Start not only provided early childhood education, care, and services for children, but also sought to promote parents' success. However, almost all evaluation studies of Head Start have focused solely on…

Preschool children from economically disadvantaged families often experience difficulties in developing prosocial behavior. Risk associated with depressive symptomatology in caregivers (parents and guardians) may further compound these difficulties. The overall objective of the present study was to examine the compensatory effect of Head Start…

This National Head Start Services Snapshot summarizes key data on demographics and services for preschool-age children served by Head Start programs. The data in this Snapshot is a subset of the annual Program Information Report (PIR) submission to the Office of Head Start. Data categories include: (1) Funded Enrollment; (2) Funded Enrollment by…

By providing early access to education, early childhood and community-based programs are helping to close the achievement gap prevalent among children from impoverished homes.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of digital and non-digital storybooks on low-income preschoolers' oral language comprehension. Employing a within-subject design on 38 four-year-olds from a Head Start program, we compared the effect of medium on preschoolers' target words and comprehension of stories. Four digital…

Head Start is a preschool program for families with low incomes and nearly 85% of child welfare-involved families are low-income, yet little is known about Head Start and child welfare collaboration. This study uses data from 28 Head Start directors to describe collaboration facilitators and barriers, and collaborative mechanisms in place. The…

Research Findings: The present study investigated the role of ethnic similarity in the peer preferences and play quality of Latino and Chinese children enrolled in Head Start classrooms and the relationship between peer acceptance and social adjustment in these groups. Participants were 244 children (M = 4.6 years old) from Head Start preschools…