Influence of Head Start on parent education: A pilot study

Research indicates that there is a strong linkage between socioeconomic status and health. Education is one of the indicators of socioeconomic status that has been consistently associated with health outcomes and general well being. The government has recognized the importance of early education in its formulation of Head Start as a mechanism by which low income children receive developmental support. The research on Head Start appears limited to child effects only, without investigation of parental impact. This is despite the time and money spent on the entire family. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to begin exploration of the impact of Head Start on parents with the focus on education.; This study was a cross sectional observational pilot study conducted at a West Baltimore Head Start Center. The study population consisted of 30 African American parent child pairs who were former enrollees in the Head Start Program from either the 2001 or 2002 cohort. The staff at Head Start randomly selected parent child pairs from a list of potential participants in the study, sampling from eighty families who met the criteria. Parents were interviewed by trained persons from the Head Start staff. The Mental Health specialist and a classroom teacher interviewed children; Family Service Coordinators collected data from parents via interviews and self-administered surveys. Analysis consisted primarily of quantitative analysis methods with limited qualitative methods. The analysis consisted of descriptive and bivariate statistics (frequencies and crosstabulations).; Results show that eight of the parents had advanced their education since leaving. Half of those attributed their advancement in education directly to Head Start. The results suggest that Head Start did in fact have an influence on parental education.; If the findings of this study are supported in further research, these results could inform changes in the methods employed to evaluate Head Start. To that end, cost-benefit analyses could be conducted with not only the child as target, but the parent/family as well.