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2/12/2010
Head Start’s fading star shining bright in Wisconsin
Does it make sense to expand a federal program the federal government tells us has “few sustained benefits?”
After some prodding, [by Fox News in late December] yesterday [January 13] the Obama administration released the long-overdue first grade evaluation of the federal Head Start program. As expected, the results show that the $7 billion per year program provides little benefit to children – and great expense to taxpayers.
So ironically (yeah, my pocketbook and yours), what shows up in a Wisconsin news report this week?
Doyle Expands Early Head Start Programs
Gov. Jim Doyle announced that nine Wisconsin Head Start Programs will receive $7.9 million in federal stimulus funds. The money will allow hundreds of Wisconsin children to enroll in Early Head Start programs, which provides early childhood education services.
"I am very excited about the opportunities these new resources will create. Early Head Start programs are central to our efforts to support families and help children thrive," Doyle said. "These programs unlock the potential in young children, giving them the opportunity to grow and shine at an early age."
Somebody (lots of somebodies – in D.C. and in Wisconsin and I’m sure, throughout the country) didn’t get the memo.
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
Jo, you are right. Thanks for the article on Project Head Start. I recruited for the program when it began in 1966, 44 years ago, and we know that K-12 education hasn't benefitted from it. Any gains made by a child in the program disappears by second grade or so.
Responsability for public education programs ought to reside as close to the family and community as possible, and not at the level of the federal government. Federal programs always come with strings and mandates. Over time and as a result, parents, communities and states lose their rights, their control and freedom, surrendering them to federal controls.
Some individuals in the current administration in Washington would go so far as to surrender certain rights with regard to education to global entities like the U.N.
Janice Taylor (Fri Feb 12 12:22:53 2010)
GOsh, I took a look at the article Jo linked to and it said this;
'Head Start children outperformed their peers in four out of the six cognitive constructs: pre-reading, pre-writing, vocabulary, and parent reports of students’ literacy skills.
But the 2005 evaluation looked only at children’s developmental progress after one year in Head Start. It didn’t address the $100 billion question: Does Head Start provide lasting benefits?
This question would be addressed by future evaluations of the performance of former Head Start students and their peers through the end of first grade and third grade."
The rest is speculation and inuendo. I would agree that there should be data by now but the lack of that data does not mean the program was not successful.
Dean Weichmann (Sat Feb 13 11:21:06 2010)
Extensive research has been done on the long-term benefits of Head Starts. A recent study is referenced in The Foundry article linked:
In sum, this report finds that providing access to Head Start has benefits for both 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds in the cognitive, health, and parenting domains, and for 3-year-olds in the social-emotional domain. However, the benefits of access to Head Start at age four are largely absent by 1st grade for the program population as a whole. For 3-year-olds, there are few sustained benefits, although access to the program may lead to improved parent-child relationships through 1st grade…
Google "Head Start" and "Long term benefits" and read the abstracts. Results are very mixed - and marginal.
Jo (Sat Feb 13 13:02:17 2010)
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