Talking points and contacts for the Streamlining Committee members is below. Maine's future prosperity depends on our ability to create and sustain a strong system of early childhood quality care and education. The governor's proposal to eliminate $4 million in State Head Start money will move us in the wrong direction. If you agree, the committee members need to hear from you now.
Talking Points on the Benefits of Head Start and Early Head Start
(Right click on a talking point to jump to supporting information.)
Head Start Contributes to School Success. The Head Start program model is based on a “whole child” approach to child development – a model that embraces the developmental skills needed to succeed in school and thrive in life. Though cognitive development and literacy skills are commonly recognized as important components of school readiness, research underscores the importance of children’s physical health, socio-emotional health, and social competence to school readiness and school success. Studies show that Head Start participation can lead to statistically significant gains in health, cognition, social-emotional development, and parenting practices.
Head Start improves children’s vocabulary, early writing, and early math skills.
Studies of Head Start show statistically significant expansions of children’s vocabulary, early writing, and early math skills at the end of the Head Start year. However, children’s skills at the end of Head Start were still lower than national norms. By the end of kindergarten, children who participated in Head Start made further progress toward national averages in vocabulary, early writing, and early math scores. In fact, the gains children made in Head Start were predictive of their achievement levels at the end of kindergarten—the larger their Head Start gains, the higher their kindergarten achievement.
Head Start increases overall educational achievement by raising test scores, decreasing the need for children to receive special education services and making it less likely that children will repeat a grade. Head Start graduates are also more likely to graduate from high school and attend college.
The Head Start Impact Study shows how Head Start is contributing to measurable developmental gains for certain subgroups of disadvantaged children, including children from high risk households, having special needs or living in non-urban settings. The most recent wave of the Impact Study documents measurable gains for certain subgroups of children considered to be especially disadvantaged, including children from high-risk households, children with special needs, and children in non-urban settings. These sub-groups demonstrated sustained cognitive gains through the end of first grade. Similarly, black children and children in the lowest academic quartile demonstrated favorable social-emotional gains through the end of kindergarten and first grade, respectively, when compared to the control group.
The characteristics of the elementary schools that children attended after Head Start may have important implications for children’s ability to sustain gains. Parents and schools make important contributions to children’s development as they transition from early care programs to elementary school, and school supports especially play a key role in sustaining early learning gains. Schools that maintain high academic expectations for students in the early elementary grades and help children develop peer relationships mitigate stress and protect against the loss of early developmental and cognitive achievements.
However, after leaving Head Start, the vast majority (about 80%) of Head Start children continue on to attend public schools with higher levels of poverty and minority students than the national average of schools. The elementary schools that most Head Start children attended were found to be of “middle quality”, with school-wide math and reading proficiency levels ranging from 55% to 64%. These schools may not be providing an environment of sufficient quality to allow Head Start children to capitalize on the developmental gains they achieve in Head Start and continue their earlier trajectories of growth.
Recognizing the unique and significant impact of schools in determining children’s continued growth; the next wave of the internal Head Start Impact Study will follow children through third grade and will collect a range of information on the schools, teachers, classrooms, and activities that children are exposed to. A better understanding of children’s formative experiences after Head Start will help to identify school characteristics that support children’s continuing success and to clarify Head Start’s role in establishing early and meaningful growth for disadvantaged children and their families.
What about Head Start Fade Out? Due in large part to the characteristics of the schools and environments that Head Start children are exposed to after Head Start, not all gains made during early childhood are consistently developed and capitalized upon throughout childhood. Additionally, as the quality of schooling experiences evens out in early elementary school, children who did not attend Head Start begin to “catch-up” to those children who were enrolled in Head Start.
Additionally, while the recent Head Start Impact Study did find mixed results overall, several subgroups showed particularly positive and enduring benefits through first grade associated with participation in Head Start:
- Children in the lowest academic quartile showed lasting improvements to their social-emotional and cognitive skills.
- Children with special needs gained lasting improvements in their math and social-emotional skills.
Dual language learners had better health.
- Children living in non-urban settings showed lasting cognitive gains.
Some of the apparent declines in the gains actually appear to highlight Head Start’s positive impact. Children who started earlier (the 3-year-old year as opposed to the 4-year-old year) and who remained in Head Start longer show more lasting improvements than the children who attended Head Start at age 4. Children who entered Head Start at age 3 and spent up to 18 months in the program had more and more sustained cognitive, social-emotional, and health outcomes their parents demonstrated increases supportive parenting practices.
Collaborations with Head Start can improve Child Care and Pre-K Quality, extending the reach of Head Start. The presence of Head Start in communities over the years has fostered the creation of learning collaboratives that have resulted in quality improvements in a variety of early childhood learning settings even beyond the Head Start environment. Research finds that child care centers that partner with Head Start provide higher quality care than do non-partnering programs, which may be attributed to partnering centers’ efforts to meet Head Start’s national standards for quality. Results are similar for state-funded preschool programs that partner with Head Start. Many states are choosing to create collaborations between their state programs and Head Start, allowing them to take advantage
of Head Start’s quality standards, infrastructure, and content.
The provision of comprehensive child and family services is a keystone of Head Start’s mission. Child care programs that partnered with Head Start were also more likely to provide comprehensive services to children and families. Pre-k programs that collaborate with Head Start also provided more comprehensive services including developmental and health screenings, social services, and meals than state pre-k classes alone. Head Start collaborations can continue to play an important role in improving the accessibility, quality, and comprehensiveness of state pre-k programs.
Programs partnering with Early Head Start also show lasting improvements including:
- Delivering higher quality care
- Offering opportunities for parent involvement
- Increased referral services for parents
- Providing screening and services to children
Early Head Start positively impacts children’s school success. Compared to similar children who were not enrolled, children who participated in Early Head Start showed:
- A larger vocabulary
- Improved cognitive skills
- Better social-emotional development including lower levels of aggressive behavior and less negativity towards parents, as well as higher levels of sustained attention and greater engagement with peers.
The positive impact of Early Head Start extends beyond the child. Parents whose children are in Early Head Start show improved parenting practices.,
- Showed greater warmth to their children
- Provided more stimulating home environments
- Provided more support for language and learning
- Were more likely to read to their child daily
- Were less likely to spank their child
- Demonstrated increased health literacy leading to annual Medicaid savings of $232 per family.
Early Head Start and Head Start show a return on investment. The calculated return on investment for each dollar spent on Head Start ranges from $7 and $9.11.
Head Start yields positive effects on individual and public health and safety. ,
- Children in Head Start have better health than a similar group of children in a control group. Head Start has been credited with reducing the mortality rate for 5-9-year-olds by up to 50% through its emphasis on medical screenings, nutrition, and vaccinations.
- A child who went to Head Start is 19 to 25 percent less likely to smoke as an adult.
- Head Start graduates are 12 percent less likely to be booked or charged with a crime.
References
Name |
Title |
Affiliation |
Address |
City |
State |
Zip |
Phone |
Email |
Ryan Low |
Vice President for Administration |
University of Maine at Farmington |
246 Main Street |
Farmington |
ME |
04938-1994 |
207-778-7271 |
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John Martin |
Representative |
Maine Legislature |
P. O. Box 250 |
Eagle Lake |
ME |
04739 |
(207) 444-5556 |
|
Joe Bruno |
President and CEO |
Community Pharmacies |
P.O. Box 528 |
Augusta |
ME |
04332-0528 |
1-800-730-4840 Ext. 212 |
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David Winslow |
Vice President of Financial Policy |
Maine Hospital Association |
33 Fuller Road |
Augusta |
ME |
04330-4910 |
(207) 622-4794 |
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Dennis Keschl |
Representative |
Maine Legislature |
1024 Wings Mills Road |
Belgrade |
ME |
04917 |
(207) 495-2973 |
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Richard Rosen |
Senator |
Maine Legislature |
PO Box 877 |
Bucksport |
ME |
04416 |
(207) 469-3779 |
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David Flanagan |
President and CEO |
Preservation Management Inc. |
707 Sable Oaks Drive |
South Portland |
ME |
04106 |
(207) 774-0501 |
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Dawn Hill |
Senator |
Maine Legislature |
124 Pine Hill Road |
Cape Neddick |
ME |
03904 |
(207) 337-3689 |
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Sue Charron |
Lewiston Social Services Director |
City of Lewiston |
27 Pine Street |
Lewiston |
ME |
04240 |
(207) 513-3130 x3260 |
|
George Kerr |
Owner |
Surf 6 Restaurant |
206 East Grand Avenue |
Old Orchard Beach |
ME |
04064 |
(207) 934-7364 |
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Phil Harriman |
Co-Founder & Partner |
Lebel & Harriman, LLP |
366 US Route One |
Falmouth |
ME |
04105 |
(207) 773-5390 |
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Staff |
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Dawna Lopatosky |
State Budget Officer |
Bureau of the Budget |
58 State House Station |
Augusta |
ME |
04333-0058 |
(207) 624-7810 |
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Karen Heck
Sr. Program Officer
The Bingham Program
61 Winthrop St.
Augusta, ME 04330
207.622.2085 ph
207.622.1458 fx
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