This report provides insight into the demographics of Head Start children and families; children's cognitive, social-emotional, and physical development and health during a year in the program; and key attributes of Head Start classrooms and programs for children who entered Head Start for the...

Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP), funded by First 5 LA, sought to make voluntary, high-quality preschool available to every 4-year-old in Los Angeles County. To achieve high-quality preschools, LAUP provided a number of services, including coaching, to both the center-based and family...

Using data from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), this report for the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provides a portrait of children entering Head Start for the...

In February 2004, First 5 LA adopted a 10-year universal preschool master plan to increase the availability of high quality preschool spaces in Los Angeles County and created Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP) to implement the plan. A shared objective of First 5 LA and LAUP is to support...

Childhood obesity is a growing health problem in the United States that has captured the attention of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. The prevalence of overweight and obesity at all ages differs by race/ethnicity.

This brief explores child-, family-, and program-level factors associated with whether children stay in Early Head Start and Head Start for the full time they are eligible or leave the program early.

This study examined program practices in a state-funded preschool in Northern California that had recently added a new assessment to its existing tools to measure and evaluate preschool students' school readiness.

A central objective of LAUP is to support early learning and development. To meet this objective, First 5 LA and LAUP have begun to track the progress of children during their year in LAUP programs as an element of the performance-based contract between the two organizations.

Childhood obesity is a growing health problem in the United States that has captured the attention of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. Over the past four decades, rates of obesity doubled among children age 2 to 5 and quadrupled among children ages 6 to 11 (Ogden and Carroll 2010).