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WASHINGTON, DC -- Representative George Miller (D-CA) today welcomed a new report on the Head Start program from the Department of Health and Human Services, noting that the report documents the important role that Head Start makes in closing the achievement gap between poor children and their more advantaged peers.
“Notably, the report shows that, in less than one school year, Head Start ‘was able to nearly cut in half the achievement gap’ in pre-reading skills and resulted in parents reading to their children more often – two factors that, according to researchers, lead to later success in school,” said Miller, the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee. “This report joins an overwhelming body of research that clearly shows that children who attend Head Start are better prepared to succeed in school than they would be if they had not attended the program.”
In addition to pre-reading skills, the study also showed that Head Start significantly improves children’s emergent literacy, language, and pre-writing skills. The study showed less an effect in the areas of oral comprehension and phonological awareness, indicating a need for some improvement. Miller said he hopes to work on these areas in a bipartisan way in Congress.
The study also shows why making Early Head Start available for more children would help boost educational outcomes. Early Head Start serves infants and toddlers from very low income families. “The report confirms the importance of expanding Early Head Start – which now serves just three percent of eligible children – since this study shows that younger children show the most benefits from the program,” said Miller.
Other recent research funded by HHS found that Head Start children made modest but meaningful gains during their year in Head Start in the areas of vocabulary, early reading and writing, and that they made even larger gains once they started school so that by the end of kindergarten, they had essentially closed the achievement gap in early reading and writing. Researchers say this shows that Head Start not only gives children new abilities in the short term, but perhaps more importantly, gives them the skills necessary to more fully take advantage of teaching when they enter school. Today’s report is consistent with these past findings.
“It’s distressing that the Bush Administration has chosen to cherry pick small aspects of this report to make it sound like Head Start is not working, but it’s not surprising coming from the very same people who tried to dismantle the program,” said Miller. “Head Start is working extremely well to improve the lives of poor children and families. We should always continue to search for ways to upgrade the program, but let’s also give credit where credit is due – to the teachers who are making a strong difference in children’s early education.”
For more information on Head Start, go to: http://edworkforce.house.gov/democrats/education_headstartupdate.shtml.
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