State(s) of Head Start

Research is clear that developmental trajectories in the first five years profoundly influence later success in school and life. That is why it is so important that every child have access to high-quality early learning experiences, especially those growing up in the most adverse circumstances. Head Start is the nation’s most ambitious effort to support children birth to five and their families, but NIEER’s new report shows just how short it falls state by state.

State(s) of Head Start is the first report to examine Head Start enrollment, quality, duration, and funding state-by-state, focusing on the 2014-2015 program year but also providing historical data back to 2007. As a federal to local program, Head Start programs are required to follow federal performance standards while also meeting local needs.  Yet variations revealed in this report cannot be explained by local need alone. Indeed, we find no obvious explanation for the state-by-state differences illustrated by the State(s) of Head Start report.

The report provides a national overview, data on the 50 states, District of Columbia, 6 U.S. territories, and the American Indian and Alaska Native and Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs. We found large discrepancies between states in key areas including access to Head Start; quality of observed classroom practices; teacher qualifications and salary; duration of Head Start services, and funding. For example:

• Nationally, Head Start served only 10 percent of low-income children (including less than 3 percent of children under age 3 and 20 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds). However, in Nevada, only 7 percent of low-income 3- and 4-year-olds attended Head Start compared to nearly 50% in Turning to children under 3, in Nevada, only 1 percent of low-income children under 3 attended Head Start, compared to almost 8 percent in the District of Columbia.
• Observed classroom quality data came from the Head Start monitoring process through which classrooms were assessed by independent observers on the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). On average, in all states, Head Start programs were observed to provide strongly emotionally supportive environments to children, which is vitally important. Half of the states were determined to be statistically above a research-based threshold on classroom organization and only one (South Carolina) was below. However, only two states (Vermont and Kentucky) could be determined to be statistically above a research-based threshold for high-quality instructional practices. Eighteen states were statistically below the research-based threshold.
• The 2007 Head Start Reauthorization required at least 50 percent of teachers in center-based Head Start classrooms have a bachelor’s degree (BA) or higher in ECE. As a result of this policy, the percent of teachers with a BA or higher increased from 44 percent in 2007 to 73 percent in 2015. Yet while nearly all Head Start teachers in the District of Columbia had a BA or higher, only 36 percent of Head Start teachers in New Mexico Turning to Early Head Start, across the country 30 percent of teachers had a BA or higher and this varied from less than 12 percent in New Mexico to 64 percent in the District of Columbia.
• Early Head Start and Head Start teachers earn substantially less than public elementary school teachers with similar credentials – averaging $29,769 in Early Head Start, $33,387 in Head Start, and $57,092 in public elementary schools. The discrepancy between Head Start and Early Head Start teachers with a BA or higher and their colleagues in public schools surpassed $40,000 in New Jersey (Early Head Start only), Massachusetts, and New York. Only in the District of Columbia are Head Start teachers paid on par with public school teachers.
• New Head Start standards approved in September 2016 call for programs to provide 1,020 hours per year by 2021 to provide children enough time in the program to make strong developmental gains. Currently only 42 percent of children receive this amount of Head Start, indicating that much progress is needed in the next 5 years to meet this goal. In Nevada and New Hampshire no children receive 1,020 hours (or the equivalent of 6 hours per day for 170 days) while in Georgia, 94 percent of children did.
• Per child funding was $12,757 for Early Head Start and $8,038 for Head Start nationwide. Adjusting for cost of living differences, per child spending was nearly twice as high in the state with the highest per child spending as in the state with the lowest per child spending, for both Head Start and Early Head Start.

Disparities arise, in part because state allocations were basically set in 1981, and, in part, because local programs have been forced to triage limited funding. State(s) of Head Start clarifies the needs in each state for additional federal, as well as state and local, support for the education of young children in poor and low-income families. This report’s findings underscore the need for greater coordination between Head Start and state and local government agencies to build high-quality early learning programs with widespread reach and adequate funding.  However, no amount of coordination or increased local autonomy would make up for the tremendous funding gap posed if the nation seriously addressed the shortfall in access to Head Start quality in each state.

All eligible children, regardless of geography, should have an equal opportunity to attend a high-quality Head Start where qualified teachers are adequately paid. Unfortunately, this is not the current state of Head Start. Rather, funding allocations are too low and not rationally distributed forcing Head Start programs into tradeoffs between enrolling more children, providing more hours of services, and employing qualified and adequately paid teachers.

State(s) of Head Start is the first report of its kind–but not necessarily the last. Our research sets a benchmark for gauging Head Start progress, especially as leadership changes at the national level. We hope this report spurs conversation about how to improve Head Start within the broader early childhood education community. We call for an independent bipartisan study commission, including policymakers, educators and researchers, to develop an action plan supporting quality education for all young children and their families, particularly the most vulnerable, in every state and territory.

Dr. Friedman-Krauss is an Assistant Research Professor at the National Institute for Early Education Research. Dr. Friedman-Krauss holds a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at NYU. While at NYU, Dr. Friedman-Krauss was part of the Secondary Analysis of Variation in Impacts center that was funded by ACF to reanalyze the Head Start Impact Study.