Are two years better than one year? A propensity score analysis of the impact of Head Start program duration on children's school performance in kindergarten

    Authors

    X. L. Wen; C. Leow; D. L. Hahs-Vaughn; J. Korfmacher;S. M. Marcus

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Early Childhood Res. Q.

    Keywords

    Head Start; Program duration; School performance; Propensity scores; LOW-BIRTH-WEIGHT; EARLY INTERVENTION; ACADEMIC-ACHIEVEMENT; PARENT; INVOLVEMENT; PREMATURE-INFANTS; AFRICAN-AMERICAN; FOLLOW-UP; PARTICIPATION; EDUCATION; MATTER; Education & Educational Research; Psychology, Developmental

    Abstract

    Using data from a nationally representative sample, this study examined Head Start children's school outcome differences by the end of Kindergarten between children who attended Head Start program for two years and the ones who attended for one year. Propensity scores were used to match children who experienced different durations of the program on a series of demographic characteristics in order to achieve a precise estimation of the effects of program duration. The results showed that in comparison to a demographically comparable group of children who attended the Head Start program for one year, the children who experienced two years of intervention services had statistically significantly higher performance on all six academic and social outcome measures by the end of Kindergarten, which included PPVT, Woodcock-Johnson Reading Skills, Woodcock-Johnson Math Reasoning Skills, teacher-reported composite academic skills, preschool learning behaviors, and social skills. Policy and practice implications are discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

    Journal Title

    Early Childhood Research Quarterly

    Volume

    27

    Issue/Number

    4

    Publication Date

    1-1-2012

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    684

    Last Page

    694

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000312176400010

    ISSN

    0885-2006

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