Positive Head Start and Early Head Start Research News

Head Start Improves Child Health

Temple University researchers announced earlier this week that their national study found that Head Start meets and exceeds the requirements to prevent obesity among at-risk children. Dr. Robert Whitaker, the lead author of this study, asserted, "Early childhood education and childcare programs throughout the nation have traditionally looked to Head Start regulations to set their own standards." The findings of this study have been published as an article in the December 2009 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Early Head Start Programs Benefit from the Head Start Program Performance Standards

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services just published a research brief demonstrating the importance of the Head Start Program Performance Standards in favorably impacting child and family outcomes in Early Head Start programs.  Early Head Start programs that implemented the Head Start Program Performance Standards early had a stronger pattern of impacts than those Early Head Start programs that did not.