Early Learning Across Decades: Advances in Measuring Head Start Effectiveness

Chloe Gibbs ()
Additional contact information
Chloe Gibbs: University of Notre Dame

No 18407, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: The Head Start program, launched in 1965 and targeted to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, remains the largest early childhood care and education (ECE) program in the United States and the only one deployed at the federal level. As such, the Head Start literature spans several decades and now allows for synthesis of findings from different contexts, time periods, and research designs. This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the rigorous evidence measuring Head Start’s effects on children, their families, and society. The focus is on how (1) the contrast between program and counterfactual conditions, (2) takeup of the program among eligible populations, and (3) treatment-effect heterogeneity inform interpretation and applicability of key findings. The paper presents implications of the evidence for the modern-day Head Start program and an adjacent, policy-relevant research agenda.

Keywords: early childhood; Head Start; child development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I24 I38 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-03
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp18407.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18407

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mark Fallak ().