Studies on Head Start Bolster Arguments for Long-Term Impact

Education Week: Almost since Head Start's creation half a century ago as part of the War on Poverty, advocates have sought a research-based answer to this question: Does it work?

Two new studies examining the long-term impact of the $8.6 billion federal preschool program offer support to those who say the answer is yes.

Those studies—one of which took a look at Head Start participants in middle school and another that examined life outcomes at adulthood—say that Head Start has measurable long-term benefits for certain outcomes. Those include higher levels of high school and college completion found in one study, and lower levels of chronic absenteeism and grade retention found in another.'

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