EARLY HEAD START RESEARCH AND EVALUATION PROJECT
When tasked with designing Early Head Start, the Department of Health and Human Services’ (USDHHS) Advisory Committee on Services for Families with Infants and Toddlers envisioned the continuation of high quality services after families completed the infant and toddler program. Smooth transitions into high quality Head Start and other preschool programs were seen as "important for ensuring continued accessibility to enriching early child development experiences and for providing ongoing family support services that promote healthy family development" (USDHHS, 1994). This vision, as well as research on continuity of early childhood services, guided the analyses of the prekindergarten followup of the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project. The primary research questions were:
- How did Early Head Start from birth to age 3 contribute to school readiness and family functioning?
- How did child development services from birth to age 5, including formal education and care program experiences between ages 3 and 5, contribute to school readiness and family functioning at the time of school entry?
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