Head Start: The Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES)

Publications

Since its founding four decades ago, Head Start has served as the nation's premier federally funded early childhood intervention. Focusing on children in the years before formal schooling, often from families with multiple risks, it has provided a natural and national laboratory for a wide range of basic, prevention, early intervention, and program evaluation research. The Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), first launched in 1997 as a periodic, longitudinal study of program performance, remains Head Start's ongoing flagship research initiative. The study is designed to be a reliable source of data for describing the experiences of Head Start children and their families; the quality of Head Start classrooms; and the qualifications, credentials, and opinions of Head Start staff.

Mathematica's five-year study chronicles the 2006 cohort of approximately 3,500 3- and 4-year-old children enrolled in 60 Head Start programs from around the country. Each cohort is followed from entrance into the Head Start program, through one or two years of program participation, with followup in the spring of kindergarten. Through direct child assessments in multiple domains, observations of Head Start classrooms, and interviews with Head Start parents, teachers, and administrators, FACES gathers comprehensive data on the cognitive and social-emotional development of Head Start children; the characteristics of their families; the quality of Head Start classrooms; and the qualifications, credentials, and views of Head Start teachers and other program staff.

Subcontractors are Educational Testing Service, Juarez and Associates, Inc., and Research Support Services. The study is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

Publications

"Sampling with Uncertain Frame Counts: Challenges in Sampling Head Start Children for the FACES Study"
Presentation at the Joint Statistical Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT (August 2007)

"FACES 2006: Study Design" (March 2007)

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