Head Start Long Term Effect

Head Start Long Term Effects
Name:
Institution:
Head Start Long Term Effects
Head start is a program run by the department of health and human services in the United States with the aim of enhancing the cognitive and social development of children from poor families. The program was initially started to take care of the disadvantaged, handicapped children, but later embraced a wider range of needy children (Zigler & Styfco, 2010). As a result, the program includes physical development practices that help the handicapped children and their parents to grow at the same pace with their counterparts. Further, the program ensures an ideal environment for the children to foster cognitive and social skills development. Early childhood education, nutrition, healthy practices, and parent involvement in child development are some of the specific practices that are carried out in any head start the program (Smith, 2012). The viability and the effectiveness of the head start the program, however, has been a contentious issue in the United States (Ehlers, 2008). Therefore, the current paper seeks to outline the long-term effects of the head start program that are exhibited by various beneficiaries of the program from varied backgrounds.
Research indicates that white students who participate in the head start programs are likely to finish high school and join colleges in the future (Ludwig & Miller, 2007). In most cases, kids from financially disadvantaged families do not make it to the colleges because of either poor grades in high school or lack of college tuition.

However, there are always programs, institutions, and individuals who are willing to support the brightest students through their college education. The head start programs help children from poor families to acquire the essential cognitive skills early in life, which helps to improve their performance in school (Siegel & Welsh, 2012). Moreover, children are taught self-supportive skills in head start programs, which help the kids to transit effectively from high school to college (Rose, 2010).
White kids who are involved in the head start program indicate elevated earnings at their early twenties (Peterson, 2006). As earlier stated, most children from poor families lack the necessary finances to take them through college. Therefore, those who choose alternative paths after high school indicate high levels of income in comparison to their counterparts. The life skills instilled in the program participants at an early age helps them to progress in life faster and better than their mates (Joo, 2010).
The African-American children involved in the head start programs have also shown positive changes in their lives. Research indicates that African-American children who attend the Head start program are less likely to be convicted or booked for criminal activities (Bekerman & Geisen, 2012). Moreover, most of the African-American male children who participate in the head start program end up in the labor markets in future.
The head start program has long-term social and economic impacts that help to shape the society. The reduction of crime among the African-American enhances peaceful coexistence in the society, which allows people to accumulate wealth with ease. Additionally, the involvement of the African-American male students in the labor markets and the elevated earnings among the young white students helps to strengthen the income levels of the poor families, hence a national economic growth (Bailey & Danziger, 2013). The effects of systemic poverty are detrimental to the growth of a nation. Therefore, the head start program has long-term positive effects that exceed beyond the children and the families involved in the programs.
References
Bailey, M. & Danziger, S. (2013). Legacies of the war on poverty. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Bekerman, Z. & Geisen, T. (2012). International Handbook of Migration, minorities, and education understanding cultural and social differences in processes of learning. Dordrecht New York: Springer Science Business Media B.V.
Ehlers, C. (2008). Encyclopedia of cross-cultural school psychology. New York: Springer.
Joo, M. (2010). Long-Term Effects of Head Start on Academic and School Outcomes of Children in Persistent Poverty: Girls vs. Boys. Children and youth services review, 32 (6), 807-814.
Ludwig, J. & Miller, D. (2007). Does Head Start Improve Children’s Life Chances? Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design. The quarterly journal of economics, 122 (1), 159-208.
Peterson, P. (2006). Generational change: closing the test score gap. Lanham Md: Rowman & Littlefield.
Rose, E. (2010). The promise of preschool from Head Start to universal pre-kindergarten. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press.
Siegel, L. & Welsh, B. (2012). Juvenile delinquency: Theory, practice, and law. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Smith, L. (2012). Head Start: A True Start to Getting Ahead: A Literature Review of the Head Start Program as a Primary Poverty Prevention Strategy. McNair scholar’s research journal, 5 (1), 167-184.
Zigler, E. & Styfco, S. (2010). The hidden history of Head Start. New York: Oxford University Press.