Skip directly to search Skip directly to site content

S M L XL

Submit your email address to get updates on The Community Guide topics of interest.

Early Childhood Development Programs: Comprehensive, Center-Based Programs for Children of Low-Income Families

Search Strategy

We searched in five computerized databases: PsychInfo, Educational Resource Information Center (ERIC), Medline, Social Science Search, and the Head Start Bureau research database. Published annotated bibliographies on Head Start and other early childhood development research, reference lists of reviewed articles, meta-analyses, and Internet resources were also examined, as were referrals from specialists in the field. To be included in the reviews of effectiveness, studies had to:

  • Document an evaluation of an early childhood development program within the United States
  • Be published in English between 1965 and 2000
  • Compare outcomes among groups of people exposed to the intervention with outcomes among groups of people not exposed or less exposed to the intervention (whether the comparison was concurrent between groups or before-and-after within groups)
  • Measure outcomes defined by the analytic framework for the intervention