Head Start and School Transition

Daryl B. Greenfield, Principal Investigator

The Head Start and School Transition Project is focused on understanding the critical transition from preschool into the early elementary school grades. Many low-income minority children and families served by Head Start do not make this transition smoothly. As a result, the children are at risk for poor educational outcomes in the early elementary school grades.

The Transition Research Group is conducting collaborative research in partnership with Head Start and the Public Schools to better understand the nature of developing competences in the social, cognitive and emergent literacy domains in low-income minority children. A major goal of this research is to create greater developmental continuity in the educational experiences of these children so that the transition from Head Start to public school is a successful one.

Current projects of the Transition Research Group are focused on the following:

School Readiness

Preschool Science

Social Competence

Cognitive Inhibition

Parent Involvement