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Title: Does Head Start Make a Difference?
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Currie, Janet
Thomas, Duncan
Does Head Start Make a Difference?
Presented: Miami, FL, Population Association of America Meetings, May 1994
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Child Health; Disadvantaged, Economically; Educational Attainment; Ethnic Differences; Family Background and Culture; Head Start; Health Care; Hispanics; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Racial Differences; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Although there is broad bi-partisan support for Head Start, there is little quantitative evidence that the program has long-term positive effects. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey's Child-Mother file, we examine the impact of the program on a range of child outcomes. After controlling for selection into the program using fixed effects methods we find positive effects of participation in Head Start on the test scores of white and Hispanic children that persist among children over 8 years old. We also find that these children are less likely to have repeated a grade. However we find no effects on the test scores or schooling attainment of African-American children. White children who attend Head Start are more likely to preventive health care, while the evidence suggests that African-American enrollees receive such care earlier than they otherwise would have. These racial differences do not seem to be explained by the relatively disadvantaged economic position of African-Americans.
Bibliography Citation
Currie, Janet and Duncan Thomas. "Does Head Start Make a Difference?" Presented: Miami, FL, Population Association of America Meetings, May 1994.