Head Start Program

The federal government launched Head Start, one of the longest-running efforts to address systemic poverty in the U.S., in 1965 to promote school readiness in low-income children. More than 22 million preschool children have participated in the program since its inception.

From 1969 to 1975, SRI’s assessment of the Head Start program resulted in groundbreaking methodology that has been widely replicated in the U.S. and abroad.

SRI also conducted the national evaluation of Follow-Through, the program that provided follow-up services to children who had participated in Head Start.