A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

Beyond the Blueprint

Directions for Research on Head Start Families

Anne Bridgman
Board on Children, Youth and Families

On its 30th anniversary, public acceptance of Head Start remains high, yet public understanding of what Head Start is and does remains low, and evaluation research--limited in quality and scope--is not uniformly positive.

In 1993, the Advisory Committee on Head Start Quality and Expansion within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services called for a long-term research plan for Head Start that would place the program in the broader context of research on young children, families, and communities and ensure that Head Start is flexible enough to respond to new issues and to the changing social and economic circumstances of the families it serves. The Roundtable on Head Start Research--under the auspices of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families [*]--was convened in November of 1994 to address some of the issues recommended by the Advisory Committee. Composed of representatives from government, universities, medicine, Head Start organizations, family support programs, and foundations, the Roundtable set out to provide a systematic analysis of research needs relevant to the changing context that Head Start faces as it enters its fourth decade. The report on the Roundtable's first three meetings will be available this spring.

Beyond the Blueprint: Directions for Research on Head Start Families points to a set of research options that hold the potential to reinvigorate Head Start's role as a national laboratory; link research on Head Start to other exciting developments in allied fields of research; and ensure that research on Head Start is immediately relevant to the program's efforts to provide high-quality, effective services. The following are among the issues addressed in the report:

The challenges posed to Head Start by the increasing ethnic and linguistic diversity of the families it serves;
The need to embed research on Head Start within its community context, paying specific attention to the effects of violent environments on Head Start and its families; and
The implications of the changing economic landscape for how Head Start works with families, and what it means to offer families a high-quality program.

To purchase a copy of this report, which will be available in May of this year, please contact: National Academy Press, 2101 Constitution Avenue, Washington, D.C. 20418; call 202/334-3313 (if you are within the Washington, D.C. area) or 800-624-6242.

[*] The Board on Children, Youth, and Families, established in 1993 under the joint aegis of the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM), was created to provide a national focal point for authoritative, nonpartisan analysis of child, youth, and family issues in the policy arena. For more information about Board projects, please write communications officer, Anne Bridgman, at the above address, call 202/334-2998, or e-mail abridgma@nas.edu.

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