Head Start: A True Start to Getting Ahead: A Literature Review of the Head Start Program as a Primary Poverty Prevention Strategy

Authors

LaPorsche C. Smith, Eastern Michigan UniversityFollow

Abstract

The federal Head Start Program plays a vital role in increasing the likelihood that under-privileged children will become academically successful in school, attend college, and become successful citizens. Yet, Head Start continuously struggles to retain its funding and is challenged in its goal of assisting low income children. A review of the literature on Head Start and related early childhood education longitudinal studies will attest to the importance of this program as a primary prevention strategy to reduce poverty, raise public awareness of its benefits, and support the efforts of its advocates to retain and expand its funding at local and federal levels.