Besharov and Call: Fact and Fiction by J.M. Holland

I have taught pre-k for 12 years--a state funded program for 5 years and Head Start for the past 7 years. In that time, I have found many folks who don’t see the benefits of Head Start. If they only spent some time in a classroom they would see its benefits firsthand, but until that happens, we will have to settle for policy debates like this pot shot of Obama’s preschool plans from conservative scholars, Douglas Besharov and Douglas Call in the New York Times.

The problem with an article like this is that it confuses facts and truth. In trying to say that by supporting pre-k, President Obama is supporting a failed enterprise, Besharov and Call twist the facts into a form that looks scary but that is ultimately brittle and falls apart under close scrutiny.

I will address each of Besharov and Call's points. Some of this will be from experience, some research, some from facts.

"After spending six months in Head Start, 4-year-olds on average could identify only two more letters than children from similar backgrounds not in the program; 3-year-olds could identify one and a half more letters."

There is no reference for this claim. It is true that children begin to blossom in language and literacy during the 4 year old year. Teaching students to recognize letters at 3 years old is not necessarily a developmentally appropriate practice, although I have successfully taught 14 out of 17 three year olds to recognize all capital, lower case, and letter sounds in 9 months so that we could begin reading in the 4 year old year. The study in the article was conducted with 4600 students, likely in community based Head Start classrooms. The 6 months could have been over the summer, or from September to February. The federally recognized reading curriculum put into place with the National Reporting System did not call for students to begin learning letter identification until after about 4 months. The real falsehood of the claim is that Head Start students learned to identify "two more letters than children from similar backgrounds not in the program." It does not tell us if these students were in a state funded program, high-quality day care, or staying home with their mother.

The article also mentions the National Reporting System, the accountability tool put into place by the Bush administration to de-fund Head Start. Sadly, (for opponents of Head Start) Head Start classrooms all over the country passed the NRS just fine even though the measure was found to be unreliable as a measurement tool. From personal experience, I know that the assessment asked students to tell the meaning of different vocabulary words in the Fall than it did in the Spring and that teachers never knew what would be on the assessment from one administration session to another including from pre-test to post test.

The implied assumption when you read the above statement about letter acquisition is that these students only learned 2 or 3 letters when they most likely learned 20 - 24 letters and their peers learned 18 - 22 letters. Counting letters aside, the real focus of Head Start is helping families out of poverty. Bickering over numbers of letters will not shed any light on how many families were able to go to work knowing their children were learning how to read, how many parents entered and or completed their GED or how many families were able to receive health services that wouldn't have received them if they weren’t in Head Start. One of the biggest impacts that Head Start has is on families' ability to locate resources to help their families out of poverty.

Head Start is primarily a social service program, not an education program. Even though the direct benefits to the child are great, there are also significant benefits for families and communities.

"From 1997 to 2004, even as Congress gave Head Start enough money to increase enrollment by 22 percent, the number of children in the program increased by only 2 percent."

I am not sure where these numbers came from but Head Start had been flat funded since 2000 until its re-authorization in 2008. This time period also saw the creation and implementation of Early Head Start, a program that supports at-risk pregnant mothers and their young children up to 3 years old. In 2004-2005, there were about 97,000 children in Head Start and 93,000 children in Early Head Start. Head Start almost doubled the number of students they were serving while only increasing costs by 22 percent. Not bad for a social program.

"So many poor families now use other programs that Head Start has, for all practical purposes, run out of poor 4-year-olds to serve. Rather than try to make the program more attractive to families, Head Start advocates persuaded Congress in late 2007 to raise the income eligibility ceiling, from essentially the poverty line to 130 percent of poverty."

According to the National Head Start Association, in 2004-2005 the program served 45 percent of children eligible for Head Start. The increase in the eligibility level is to accommodate for the lessened value of the dollar. Many families within 130% are still poor and needing the comprehensive services Head Start provides.

"Lack of money is not the problem: to keep a child in Head Start full-time, year-round, costs about $22,600, as opposed to an average cost of $9,500 in a day care center."

This is blatantly not true. According to Steven Barnett of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), Head Start student costs about $8000 dollars a year. In fact, Head Start is often funded with kind donations of local communities. High quality day care is more expensive than $9,500 a year. Day care can cost between $6,000 and $20,000 per year. The difference is that you often get what you pay for in terms of private day care.

Besharov is a scholar associated with the American Enterprise Institute, a neo-conservative think tank that came to prominence during the Bush Administration. Members of the organization have included Newt Gingrich, Paul Wolfowitz,  John Bolton, and Lynne Cheney. Skewing of facts on either side of the pre-k debate is not about helping kids, it is about helping an argument. An article like this really seems to be preaching to a choir that already supports the dominant ideas expressed in it. However, for better or worse, that choir left Washington D.C. on January 20th, 2009.

Comments

[James Mac Shane]

This critique is accurate. There are several additional clarifications that I would like to add to the discussion.

Because of the purity and openness that children of that age naturally bring with them in the Head Start program learning is a totally new experience. Children's total environment for them is life itself. The most important thing that Head Start provides is as positive a natural whole child development environment that aids the child no matter how negative their other life experiences may be for the child.

Helping parents is an important aspect but Head Start can provide a positive experience in the self development of the child no matter what the external experience may be for the child.

[Amy F.]

Thanks, John, for posting this. I don't know if the program Ian is in is technically "Head Start", it is the VPI program through Richmond public schools. But it is a complete godsend on so many levels...... I was so worried about Ian not being able to go to preschool b/c I knew we could never afford it, we can barely afford groceries. Daycare was out of the question, and even private preschools would have stretched the budget to an unreachable point. Knowing Ian is getting a quality experience and will be ready for kindergarten is so important, I am not at all worried about him being ready for school. He is learning very well, can read short words, and most importantly, is following directions and interacting well with his peers. Thank you for the wonderful job you do w/ the kids you teach. Bless you!! I hope these programs continue to be funded, I can say firsthand that we have benefitted immensely. Tell that neo-con think tank to shove it!

[Jason Flom]

Nice rebuttal. I hope it sees a lot of traffic. I'll post on my website.