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Key Findings:

Examples of key findings related to child characteristics and family environments include the following:

• Among children still attending Head Start in the spring, 65 percent are completing their first year of Head Start, whereas 35 percent are completing their second program year.
• Forty percent of Head Start children who are still attending in the spring live in households where a language other than English is spoken, and 25 percent live in households where a language other than English is the primary language spoken to them.
• Forty-nine percent of Head Start children who are still attending in the spring live with both of their biological or adoptive parents.
• Children are more likely to be read to everyday in the fall of the program year than in the spring (40 percent versus 35 percent).

Examples of key findings related to child cognitive, social-emotional, and health and physical development include the following:

• Children gain between 1.6 and 2.2 standard score points in both English receptive and expressive vocabulary, letter-word knowledge, and early math, but do not make gains in early writing skills relative to same-age children in the general population.
• On average, teachers report improvement in aspects of children’s social-emotional skills during the Head Start program year. They demonstrate better social skills on average by the spring of the Head Start year than in the fall and more positive approaches to learning.
• Children improve their performance on a measure of executive function over the Head Start program year.
• Children’s body mass index (BMI) categories do not significantly change during the year.