Assignment task:
ABSTRACT: Evidence from model preschool education programs is reviewed to determine what impacts quality programs can have on poor children "s intellectual and social competence; evidence from Head Start is reviewed to determine whether preschool programs of national scope have typically produced the same effects as those produced by model programs. Research has shown that both model programs and Head Start have immediate positive impacts on tests of intellectual performance and social competence but that this impact declines over the first few years of public schooling. The evidence of improvement on long- term measures of school performance such as special education placement is substantial for model programs but thin and inconsistent for Head Start. There is limited but provocative evidence that model programs may have positive effects on life success measures such as teen pregnancy, delinquency, welfare use, and employment, but there is virtually no evidence linking Head Start attendance with any of these variables. Benefit-cost studies show that model programs can produce long-term benefits that exceed the value of the original program investment, but it would be premature to argue that Head Start is cost-beneficial Research to explain the different impacts of model