Finds that, a year or more after enrolling in the program, 2-year-olds perform significantly better on a range of measures of cognitive, language, and social-emotional development, when compared with a randomly assigned control group. EHS families are also more likely to attend school or job...

This concept paper proposes a four-stage approach to in-country/region ECD program development, selection, and inquiry designed to build the evidence base required to guide program and policy decisions. The foundation of the approach is a strengths-based continuous program improvement framework....

Mathematica collected data on child care settings used by program and control group families when children were 14, 24, and 36 months of age. Findings demonstrate the important role programs played: Early Head Start families were receiving not only more child care but substantially more...

Head Start, the largest federally funded preschool program, provides comprehensive services to economically disadvantaged children and their families so that children can enter kindergarten ready to succeed in school. Performance standards include requirements for the intensity and quality of a...

This report describes strategies for supporting quality in home-based child care settings as well as considerations for decision-making and ongoing evaluation.

The final report to Congress presents complete findings from our seven-year national evaluation of Early Head Start. The findings show that the program promotes learning and the parenting that supports it within the first three years of life. Participating children perform significantly better...

Early Head Start, a federal program begun in 1995 for low-income pregnant women and families with infants and toddlers, was evaluated through a randomized trial of 3,001 families in 17 programs. Interviews with primary caregivers, child assessments, and observations of parent– child...

This report describes strategies for supporting quality in home-based child care settings as well as considerations for decision-making and ongoing evaluation.