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Like today's advocates of

universal preschool, President

Johnson sold his program to

the public by promising that early

intervention could prevent

delinquency, poverty, and welfare

use.  The reality of Head

Start has been much different.

As have model intervention programs, Head Start pro-

grams have had mixed short-term results.92   However, there

is no evidence of Head Start's having a positive, lasting

impact on children.93  The most recent and thorough analy-

sis of Head Start's impact was conducted in 1997 by the

General Accounting Office.94   After speaking with early

childhood researchers and practitioners and searching

through electronic databases to locate published and unpub-

lished manuscripts, GAO found nearly 600 citations and

documents.  Of those, only 22 studies fit their criteria

for review and all of those "had some methodological prob-

lems."95   Not one study used a nationally representative

sample so that findings could be generalized to the

national program.96  The GAO concluded that "the body of

research on current Head Start is insufficient to draw

conclusions about the impact of the national program."97

Although the 1990 act that reauthorized Head Start funding

directed the Department of Health and Human Services to

conduct "a longitudinal study of the effects that the par-

ticipation in Head Start programs has on the development

of participants and their families and the manner in which

such effects are achieved," the Department of Health and

Human Services claims that funds were never appropriated

for the study; consequently, it has not been conducted.98

HHS maintains that early research has proven Head

Start's effectiveness.  In a letter to the GAO, June Gibbs

Brown, inspector general of HHS, wrote, "There is clear

evidence of the positive impacts of Head Start services."99

For supporting evidence, HHS cited findings from a compre-

hensive synthesis of Head Start impact studies conducted

under its auspices in 1985.100  The study showed that Head

Start can have an immediate positive impact on cognitive

measures, social behavior, and child health, among other

things.101  HHS failed, however, to mention the rest of the

synthesis's findings, namely that the short-term impact of

Head Start quickly diminishes once the children enter

school.  In fact, the synthesis concluded, "In the long

run, cognitive and socioemotional test scores of former

Head Start students do not remain superior to those of

disadvantaged children who did not attend Head Start."102

Regarding cognitive development measures--IQ scores,

school readiness, and achievement test scores--the report

concluded: