Edited by Edward Zigler, Ph.D., & Sally J. Styfco

Are we failing the children most at risk? 53 of America’s leading experts weigh in.

The future of Head Start depends on how well we learn from and apply the lessons from its past. That’s why everyone involved in early education needs this timely, forward-thinking book from the leader of Head Start. The first book to capture the Head Start debates in all their complexity and diversity, this landmark volume brings together the research and personal experience of 53 top experts in a wide range of fields — including education, research, medicine, and social work. This powerful compilation of voices mines Head Start’s 38-year history for lessons learned, turns a critical eye on where the program is headed, and offers readers distinct and often contrasting viewpoints on three major issues:

• Goals. Explore three crucial questions about the goals of the program: cognitive development vs. school readiness, short-term vs. long-term progress, and Head Start as an antipoverty tool vs. Head Start as a child development program
  
  
• Effectiveness. Investigate the impact of Head Start on children’s literacy, cognitive skills, health, school readiness and success, and parent participation — and learn how research might be improved so outcomes can be assessed more accurately
  
  
• Future directions. Examine ways that Head Start might evolve to improve program quality, explore how to meet the child care needs of particular families, provide universal access, address administrative and funding challenges, and prepare children for lifelong learning
  

This compelling, urgently needed book will help readers understand the complexity of Head Start, shape future policy, and ensure that all young children will arrive at school ready to succeed.

1. Early Educational Interventions and Intelligence: Implications for Head Start
   Craig T. Ramey and Sharon Landesman Ramey
   
   
2. Familiar Concept, New Name: Social Competence/School Readiness as the Goal of Head Start
   Rebecca D.A. Schragg, Sally J. Styfco, and Edward Zigler
   

Long- versus Short-Term Effects

3. When Psychology Informs Public Policy: The Case of Early Childhood Intervention
   Martin Woodhead
   
   
4. Head Start—Revisiting a Historical Psychoeducational Intervention: A Revisionist Perspective
   Irving E. Sigel
   

Poverty Warriors versus Child Developmentalists

5. Three Core Concepts of the War on Poverty: Their Origins and Significance in Head Start
   Polly Greenberg
   
   
6. Was Head Start a Community Action Program? Another Look at an Old Debate
   Carolyn Harmon
   
   
7. An Early Administrator’s Perspective
   Julius B. Richmond (with Jule M. Sugarman)
   

Debate II: Does Head Start Work?

Impact on School Readiness and Success

8. The Head Start Classroom as an Oral Language Environment: What Should the Performance Standards Be?
   Catherine Snow and Mariela Páez
   
   
9. A Community-Based Approach to School Readiness in Head Start
   Chaya S. Piotrkowski
   
   
10. Head Start and Evidence-Based Educational Models
    David P. Weikart
    

Impact on Health

11. Head Start’s Efforts to Improve Child Health
    Robert W. O’Brien, David B. Connell,and James Griffin
    
    
12. The Challenge of Mental Health in Head Start: Making the Vision Real
    Jane Knitzer
    

Impact on Families

13. A Persistent Pattern of Progress: Parent Outcomes in Longitudinal Studies of Head Start Children and Families
    Peggy Daly Pizzo and Elizabeth Edwards Tufankjian
    
    
14. A Parent’s Views on Head Start
    Delores Baynes
    
    
15. A Former Head Start Student’s Views
    U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez
    

Research Must Be Better

1. Does Head Start Have Lasting Cognitive Effects? The Myth of Fade-Out
   W. Steven Barnett
   
   
2. How Well Does Head Start Prepare Children to Learn to Read?
   Grover J. Whitehurst and Greta M. Massetti
   
   
3. New Possibilities for Research on Head Start
   Deborah A. Phillips and Sheldon H. White
   

Debate III: The Future of Head Start

Quality

19. Head Start in the 1990s: Striving for Quality Through a Decade of Improvement
    Joan Lombardi and Amy Stephens Cubbage
    
    
20. Quality in Head Start: A Dream within Reach
    Gregg Powell
    
    
21. Head Start: A Decade of Challenge and Change
    Judith A. Chafel and Heather L. Sugioka
    
    
22. Professional Social Work Involvement in Head Start
    Arthur J. Frankel
    

Child Care

23. Head Start and Child Care: Programs Adapt to Meet the Needs of Working Families
    Helen Blank and Nicole Oxendine Poersch
    
    
24. Are There Better Ways to Spend Federal Child Care Funds to Improve Child Outcomes?
    Douglas J. Besharov
    

Universal Access

25. The “Failure” of Head Start
    John Merrow
    
    
26. A Head Start for All Children
    Gwen Morgan
    

Timing of Intervention

27. Dosage-Response Effects and Mechanisms of Change in Public and Model Programs
    Arthur J. Reynolds
    
    
28. The Transition to School: Building on Preschool Foundations and Preparing for Lifelong Learning
    Sharon Landesman Ramey, Craig T. Ramey, and Robin Gaines Lanzi
    
    
29. Early Head Start, Child Care, Family Support, and Family Policy
    Sheila B. Kamerman and Alfred J. Kahn
    

(A Sub-Debate) Early Brain Development

30. The Brain and Child Development: Time for Some Critical Thinking
    John T. Bruer
    
    
31. Critical Periods of Central Nervous System Development
    Paul J. Lombroso and Kyle D. Pruett
    
    
32. The Environmental Mystique: Training the Intellect versus Development of the Child
    Edward Zigler
    

Administration

33. Coordinating Head Start with the States
    Wade F. Horn
    
    
34. Maintaining Federal to Local Management of Head Start
    Sarah M. Greene
    
    
35. What Can Be Learned from State-Funded Prekindergarten Initiatives: A Data-Based Approach to the Head Start Devolution Debate
    Walter S. Gilliam and Carol H. Ripple
    
    
36. Caveat Emptor: The Head Start Scam
    John Hood
    
    
37. The Wisdom of a Federal Effort on Behalf of Impoverished Children and Their Families
    Edward Zigler and Sally J. Styfco
    

Models for the Future

38. Head Start as a National Laboratory
    Christopher C. Henrich
    
    
39. The Future of Head Start
    Barbara T. Bowman