This evaluation rigorously assessed the implementation and impact of a child care Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) field test on child care quality as measured through child care quality observations and through ratings of a set of quality, education, and experience standards defined...

Mathematica's evaluation looked at early childhood developing programming, policy development, and investments; (2) efforts to enhance infrastructure to expand and sustain investments in service quality and support parent choice and decision making; and (3) efforts to integrate programs and...

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...

The Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey, or Baby FACES, is a longitudinal descriptive study of Early Head Start that captures family- and child-level information in addition to program-level characteristics. This first report defines Head Start features and characteristics,...

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...