New Head Start Study Shows No Long-Term Effects of Preschool

A study on students in Head Start released yesterday by the US Department of Health and Human Services shows no long-term academic improvement from the program.  In fact, the effects disappear after Kindergarten.

The study showed that at the end of one program year, access to Head Start positively influenced children’s school readiness.  When measured again at the end of kindergarten and first grade, however, the Head Start children and the control group children were at the same level on many of the measures studied.

This should not surprise – numerous studies show that any gains from large scale government-run preschool disappear after a few years.