Beginning Head Start: Children, Families and Programs in Fall 2006

The Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), a tool for measuring Head Start program performance at the national level, collects data on successive nationally representative cohorts of the children, their families, classrooms, and programs. It also examines developmental progress of children and their families during and after Head Start participation. In fall 2006, approximately 458,000 children were newly enrolled in 14,400 Head Start centers across the U.S. Just over a third were Hispanic/Latino; another third were African American. On average, children scored below the national norms on most measures of language, literacy, and math development, but mean standard scores for the highest quartile of children were at the national averages in letter recognition and early writing skills.