Head Start does not raise IQ's

Initial IQ gains produced by Head Start during a child's program attendance 
do fade-out gradually after the child leaves the program. This is true for 
all types of preschool education interventions that began after age three. 

However, IQ scores do not tell the whole entire story. Follow-up studies of Head Start also 
have looked at achievement test scores, grade retention, special education, and high school 
graduation to assess Head Start's long-term cognitive and academic benefits. At first glance, 
achievement test results appear consistent with IQ results. Most, but not all, Head Start 
studies find that achievement effects decline and disappear a few years into school. Yet nearly all 
studies that measured school progress find lasting impacts on grade repetition, special education, 
and high school graduation.

 
2. Hyping the Head Start Program  

 
by Mackinac Center for Public Policy 


from http://www.educationreport.org/article.asp?ID=159    Posted: Apr. 5, 1993


The Head Start program is, in the words of founder Edward Zigler, "America's most successful education experiment." Zigler is exactly right, 
if success is measured by good public relations.  Politicians from both major parties are fond of touting Head Start, the popular federal program
 that provides preschool and health services to poor children. Social activists, educators and journalists love it (for the latter, the smiling faces 
of preschoolers make for excellent television). ....
Certainly, Head Start children tend to score better than their peers when they enter first-grade. But after about two years of public school, 
the disadvantaged who attended Head Start tend to perform at about the same level as those who did not--that is, poorly. Two years is all it takes 
for the educational "gains" from Head Start to disappear.
A 1985 analysis by the Department of Health and Human Services found that ambitious claims for Head Start's long-term effects were exaggerated.
 "In the long run," the department's report noted, "cognitive and socio-emotional test scores of former Head Start students do not remain superior 
to those of disadvantaged children who did not attend Head Start." More recent research confirms that conclusion. 
The source of all the hype about Head Start is really the experience of a few atypical, idiosyncratic preschool programs whose specific designs
 include a great deal of parental involvement, funding, and staff training. 

3. Early Education Fadeout in IQ, a 2003 report by charter schools 



from http://www.ncsc.info/newsletter/june2003/early_childhood.htm 
- a charter schools site funded by the US Department of Edcation:

Eliminating Fade-Out
 (of Early Childhood Education efforts)



Unfortunately, cognitive gains, as measured by IQ and performance
tests, extend into the early primary grades, but begin to dissipate, or
“fade-out”, around second or third grade. In other words, by the end of
the primary grades, there is no material difference in the achievement
scores of children who had attended preschool and those who had not.2 Failure to sustain
the cognitive gains achieved as a result of Head Start attendance can
be attributed to the inferior schools into which students are enrolled
subsequent to program completion.3



However, “(i)t is in the non-cognitive realm (of behavioral and
socialization skills) that the greatest benefits of preschool
experience occur.”4
Furthermore, non-cognitive gains have proven to be sustainable in the
long run. According to the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory’s
Research on Early Childhood Education, a report compiling the results
of many of the early Head Start studies, preschool graduates outperform
non-preschool participants in the following non-cognitive areas:5 

  

    

      
* 
      
Fewer
referrals for remedial classes 
    
    

      
* 
      
Fewer retentions 
    
    

      
* 
      
Greater social and
emotional maturity 
    
    

      
* 
      
More frequent high
school graduation/GED completion rates 
    
    

      
* 
      
Lower absenteeism 
    
    

      
* 
      
Better attitudes
toward school 
    
    

      
* 
      
Better self-esteem 
    
    

      
* 
      
Lower incidence of
illegitimate pregnancy, drug use and delinquent acts 
    
  










 
See: Nature vs Nurture, 
a summary of research on IQ. It indicates that  70-80% of IQ is determined by genetics. 
Those who feel that nature plays a bigger role point to findings such as at http://www.audiblox.com/iq_scores.htm (This site 
describes an enriched group of disadvantaged youths with average IQ's of 105, compared to a control group with 85 IQ's after 
several years). But this and similar limited findings fit the atypical cases in the above paragraph. If IQ gains really were 
permanent, Head Start proponents like Steven Barnett above would not be talking about fadeout of those gains. 

Or go to: IQ Basic Information or Home Page



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