What Makes a Difference : Early Head Start Evaluation Findings in a Developmental Context

A randomized trial evaluated the efficacy of 17 Early Head Start (EHS) programs. 3,001 low-income families with a pregnant women or an infant under 12 months were assigned to a treatment or control group. Data were collected when children were 1, 2, 3, and 5 years old. Analyses examined (1) impacts at ages 2 and 3 (while services were being offered) and at age 5, and (2) contributions of early education experiences across children's first 5 years of life.

Child outcomes included cognition, language, attention, behavior problems, and health; maternal outcomes included parenting, mental health, and employment

John M. Love, Ph.D., retired as senior fellow at Mathematica Policy Research in 2010 and now provides consultation on program evaluation and early childhood policy issues to state and county agencies. He is president of the Ashland Institute for Early Childhood Science and Policy. In addition to directing the Early Head Start national evaluation contract from his inception, he has studied Head Start, preschool, and child care programs since the early 1970s.

Rachel Chazan-Cohen, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Applied Developmental Psychology at George Mason University. Previously, she was the coordinator of infant and toddler research in theOffice of Planning,Research, and Evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She is particularly interested in the biological, relational, and environmental factors influencing the development of at-risk children, and most especially, on the creation, evaluation, and refinement of intervention programs for families with infants and toddlers.

Helen Raikes, Ph.D., is Willa Cather Professor and Professor, Child, Youth and Family Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her research has focused on infants, toddlers and preschool age children at greatest risk, early language and social emotional development, and on parenting with an emphasis on understanding influences on the developmental trajectories of vulnerable children that are amenable to intervention. Another strand of research focuses on state and federal programs and policies that affect young children's developmental outcomes. She was a SRCD Social Policy Fellow at the Administration on Children, Youth and Families when the Early HeadStart Research and Evaluation Study began.

Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Ph.D. is the Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of Child Development and Education at Teachers College and the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, and she directs the National Center for Children and Families (www.policyforchildren.org). She is interested in environmental, biological, and psychological factors that contribute to children's well-being. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies and the National Academy of Education. She has received the policy award from SRCD and was co-editor of their Social Policy Report.