This study provides the first comprehensive analysis of the distributional
effects of Head Start, using the first national randomized experiment of the
Head Start program (the Head Start Impact Study).
The authors find that (the experimentally manipulated) Head
Start attendance leads to large and statistically significant gains in
cognitive achievement during the pre-school period and that the gains are largest
at the bottom of the distribution. Once the children enter elementary
school, the cognitive gains fade out for the full population, but importantly,
cognitive gains persist through 1st grade for some Spanish speakers.
These results provide strong evidence in favor of a compensatory model of
the educational process. Additionally, the findings of large effects at the
bottom are consistent with an interpretation that the relatively large gains in
the well-studied Perry Preschool Program are in part due to the low baseline
skills in the Perry study population.
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