Child and Family Outcomes During the Head Start Year: FACES 2014-2015 Data Tables and Study Design
Evidence | Publications

Child and Family Outcomes During the Head Start Year: FACES 2014-2015 Data Tables and Study Design

OPRE Report 2017-100
Published: Dec 30, 2017
Publisher: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation
Human Services Early Childhood Child Development Early Childhood Systems Nutrition Childhood Obesity Data Analytics Research and Evaluation Surveys and Data Collection Policy Analysis
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Authors

Nikki Aikens

Ashley Kopack Klein

Emily Knas

Jacob Hartog

Mikia Manley

Lizabeth Malone

Louisa Tarullo

Serge Lukashanets

Key Findings

Key Findings:

Examples of key findings related to child characteristics and family environments include the following:

  • Among children still attending Head Start in the spring, 65 percent are completing their first year of Head Start, whereas 35 percent are completing their second program year.
  • Forty percent of Head Start children who are still attending in the spring live in households where a language other than English is spoken, and 25 percent live in households where a language other than English is the primary language spoken to them.
  • Forty-nine percent of Head Start children who are still attending in the spring live with both of their biological or adoptive parents.
  • Children are more likely to be read to everyday in the fall of the program year than in the spring (40 percent versus 35 percent).

Examples of key findings related to child cognitive, social-emotional, and health and physical development include the following:

  • Children gain between 1.6 and 2.2 standard score points in both English receptive and expressive vocabulary, letter-word knowledge, and early math, but do not make gains in early writing skills relative to same-age children in the general population.
  • On average, teachers report improvement in aspects of children’s social-emotional skills during the Head Start program year. They demonstrate better social skills on average by the spring of the Head Start year than in the fall and more positive approaches to learning.
  • Children improve their performance on a measure of executive function over the Head Start program year.
  • Children’s body mass index (BMI) categories do not significantly change during the year.

This report includes key information on the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey 2014 (FACES 2014) study design and a set of data tables that presents descriptive statistics on the demographic backgrounds and developmental outcomes of children enrolled in Head Start in fall 2014 who were still enrolled in spring 2015. The tables also detail aspects of their home environment and family life. Data are drawn from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES 2014).

The purpose of this report is two-fold: (1) to provide information about the FACES study, including the background, design, methodology, measures, and analytic methods, and (2) to report detailed descriptive statistics and related standard errors in a series of tables on children and their families. The data provide descriptive information from parent surveys, teacher child reports, and direct child assessments. 

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