Head Start programs, including Early and Migrant/Seasonal Head Start, are governed by a set of federally legislated Program Performance Standards that were established in the 1970's and revised in 1998. These Standards provide the base quality framework by which all Head Start agencies operate. The Head Start Program Performance Standards provide standardized definitions of Head Start quality and are used as the structure for monitoring services, both at the local and from the federal levels.

Prior to the 1998 revision, the Program Performance Standards addressed all areas of Head Start comprehensive services. That revision brought integration of the Standards for quality comprehensive service delivery, needed to implement the Head Start concept, into three major areas:

• Early Childhood Development and Health Services
• Family and Community Partnerships
• Program Design and Management

Additionally, the Standards address services to children with disabilities/special needs. Head Start agencies use these standards to create their programs' services and methods of delivery, establish management systems, and monitor quality.

For more than 40 years, no other early childhood development program has been more extensive and successful than Head Start in meeting the needs of the children, families, and communities it serves. Research has unequivocally demonstrated that Head Start makes a difference in the lives of children, families, & communities.

Some of the proven benefits of Head Start are: children are better prepared to learn & have higher self-esteem and social behavior at school entry; children show positive school achievement and motivation; and, Head Start provides jobs and services in most communities and makes those communities more responsive to the needs of low-income people.

Many positive outcomes for children have been demonstrated, including: positive long-term effects on parent & teacher ratings of anti-social behavior and/or actual delinquency records; and, Head Start children score higher on such school readiness measures as verbal achievement, perceptual reasoning, and social competence than children who have attended other preschools or no preschool.

Parents involved in Head Start are found to have: greater quality of life satisfaction, increased confidence in coping abilities, and decreased feelings of anxiety, depression, and sickness. They also report positive changes in their personal lives, behaviors, & attitudes, including an increase in knowledge of available social services & resources and a decrease in negative attitudes towards public schools.

Head Start benefits communities in strong ways: by providing employment to thousands of people, and providing countless Head Start-related job opportunities; by providing leadership in successful community partnerships to maximize resources for more coordinated services; and, by working to reduce the predictors of later juvenile delinquency - childhood anti-social behavior, low cognitive abilities, and poor parenting - by providing family support and education.

Effective evaluation of Head Start has long plagued researchers. Improved social competence and children's preparedness for school are more elusive than evaluating IQ increases. However, the evidence is convincing that these goals are achieved in Head Start. The program is also difficult to evaluate due to one of its strengths ó its flexibility. But in fact, the General Accounting Office (1995b) used Head Start as the standard by which to evaluate other preschool initiatives. Several major reports have shown Head Start to be more comprehensive & more developmentally appropriate than most others (Zigler, 1997).