THE
BIRTH
OF
HEAD
START
class="bi x0 y0 w2 h3"
Preschool
Education
Policies
in
the
Kennedy
and
Johnson
Administrations
MARIS
A.
VINOVSKIS
THE
UNIVERSITY
OF
CHICAGO
PRESS
CHICAGO
AND
LONDON
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2005 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2005

N
TE
N
TS
Acknowledgments /
ix
List
of
Abbreviations / xi
Introduction /
I
Changing Views
of
Poverty
and
Early Child Development / 5
2 Education, Poverty,
and
Early Schooling
in
the
Kennedy Administration /
12
3 Education Policy,
the
War
on
Poverty,
and
the

investigation
of
the ways Puritans educated their young. Many individuals,
including Carl Kaestle,
Dean
May,
and Gerald Moran, have
been
instrumen-
tal in helping
me
pursue those interests over the years.
The
present study builds
on
my
earlier interest
in
the changingpatterns
of
childhood education and merges it
with
my
increased involvement
with
na-
tional education policy since
the
early
1990S.

of
Michigan
under
the leadership
of
Susan
Neuman
commissioned
me
to
write
an
analysis
of
the
Carter
administra-
tion's attempts
to
transfer
Head
Start to the
U.S.
Department
of
Education in
the late
1970S.
I
am

at
various libraries were extremely
generous and helpful
throughout
the
entire project.
X
ACKNOWLEDG
M
ENTS
The
University
of
Chicago Press was exemplary in expediting the publica-
tion
of
the
manuscript.
As
an editor, Robert Devens provided enthusiastic
and
thoughtful
assistance in
meeting
the
challenges
of
writing
a scholarly
monograph

own
expertise in
the
history
of
early childhood education
but
suggested the title for
the
book. And
my
col-
league and
good
friendJeffMirel read the entire manuscript and
made
excel-
lent substantive and editorial suggestions.
As
always, the love and support I continue
to
receive from
my
wife, Mary,
and
my
son,
Andy,
have made the writing
of

the
weekly bridge
games Mary
and
I play
with
Barbara andJeff Mirel have added a source
of
pleasure and frustration
to
our
lives.
The
book
is
dedicated
to
my
older sister, Daila Kuhr,
and
my
younger
brother, Edward Vinovskis.
As
we
age together
we
are drawn
more
to

MAP
NDEA
NEA
American Federation
of
Labor-Congress
of
Industrial Organizations
Bureau
of
the
Budget
Community
Action Agency
Community
Action
Program
Citizens' Crusade against Poverty
Child Development
Group
of
Mississippi
Council
of
Economic Advisers
Economic
Opportunity
Act
Elementary and Secondary Education Act
Family Assistance Plan

Office
of
Education
Office
of
Economic
Opportunity
Office
of
Programs for Education
of
the
Disadvantaged
Planning-Programming-Budgeting System
Request for Proposal
Office
of
Research, Planning, Programs, and Evaluation
Social Rehabilitation Service
Volunteers in Service
to
America
Works Progress Administration
INTRODUCTION
Project
Head
Start has
been
one
of

2000
presidential campaign, candidate George W
Bush
recommended
transferring it
from
the
Department
of
Health
and
Human
Services
to
the
Department
of
Education and emphasizing teaching
literacy skills in early childhood education programs. After assuming office
and encountering considerable opposition to relocating
Head
Start, the Bush
administration backed away from its plans
to
transfer the program. But Pres-
ident Bush reiterated his belief thatpreschool education
in
general, and
Head
Start inparticular, shouldprepare youngchildren

explain advocacy for various policy options.
For example, manypolicy makers contend
that
its founders never intended
to
design a
program
that
was primarily educational
but
rather
a
broader
early
childhood development intervention for preschoolers. Unfortunately,
the
2
INTRODUCTION
scholarly literature
about
the origin and nature
of
Head
Start and
other
early
childhood education programs in the Kennedy andJohnson administrations
is
limited and does
not

documents
and reflections
on
the
early phases titled
Project
Head
Start: A
Legacy
of
the
War
on
Poverty.
4
Other
scholars have devoted surprisingly little attention
to
the origins
of
Head
Start. Although some older studies
of
the
war
on
poverty may include
a few pages
or
a chapter

Sargent
Shriver includes
a chapter emphasizing Shriver's role in
the
development
of
Head
Start
but
fails to acknowledge its diverse and complex origins.
7
Some
prominent
media
columnists are accepting and repeating this biography's interpretation
of
the
projecfs origins.
s
A
broader
and
deeper examination
of
policies
toward
preschools
and
Head
Start during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations

congressional Republicans and
the
arguments
of
those
who
favored making
Head
Start a
more
education-oriented program, in particular, are neglected.
Related developments
in
this period, such
as
Head
Starfs
relation
to
an-
tipoverty programs and education-improvement initiatives, have
not
been
ad-
equately incorporated. Moreover, scholars have
not
made full use
of
the
files

and
other
sponsors. This study also explores President
John
F.
Kennedy's at-
INTRODUCTION
3
tempts
to
deal
with
poverty
and
education and
documents
his administra-
tion's plans for
supporting
preschools for disadvantaged children.
These
efforts provided
much
of
the subsequent advisory staff
as
well
as
the concep-
tual framework for

job
training for disadvantaged youths and empowering local
community
action
programs-with
little attention
to
early childhood education. But
House
Re-
publicans, drawing
on
the testimony
of
Urie Bronfenbrenner
and
other
ex-
perts, championed preschools during the OED's deliberations in
1964
and the
passage
of
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)
of
1965.
As
the
educational and political value
of

of
OEO's Follow
Through
Program.
9
The
book
also considers the challenges faced by
Head
Start in the second
half
of
the
1960s,
including debates
about
the nature and control
of
the polit-
ically controversial Mississippi
Head
Startprograms,
Head
Start
as
an integral
part
of
community action programs, the degree
to

the
mass media.
Of
particu-
lar help were unpublished OED, congressional, and
other
government docu-
ments
located at
the
National Archives in College Park, Maryland,
and
the
Kennedy andJohnson libraries. Previously conducted oral histories by
some
of
the leading participants
in
Head
Start provided additional information and
insightful after-the-fact assessments
of
events. Specialized collections such
as
the Wilbur
Cohen
papers at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, the
Citizen's Crusade against Poverty collection at the Walter Reuter Library in
Detroit, the Peter Dominick papers
at

late
1950S
and
1960s
and discussing the valuable contributions
of
the Kennedy
and
johnson
administrations
to
the creation
and
implementation
of
Head
Start and
other
early childhood education programs.
The
chapter also ana-
lyzes the relation
between
politics and policymaking and
the
way
in
which
that
interaction may lead

well
as
leading Democratic and Republican policymakers.
Substantial progress has
been
made in helping
many
disadvantaged Amer-
icans during
the
past four decades. Many
of
those improvements have
fo-
cused
on
the
elderly. Despite periodic initiatives aimed at providing equal ed-
ucational opportunities for all children, limited progress has
been
made
in
closing
the
achievement gap
between
children from disadvantaged house-
holds and those living
in
more

policy makers in the
Kennedy and
johnson
administrations as well as assessing
the
strengths and
weaknesses
of
their initial preschool policies,
we
may
be
able
to
clarify and
improve
the
policy alternatives facing us today.
ONE
Changing
Views
of
Poverty
and
Early
Child
Development
Educational needs
in
post-World

sci-
ence and
math
education for
more
advanced
and
gifted stu-
dents.
2
The
special needs
of
economically disadvantaged stu-
dents
went
largely unnoticed, however.
3
This
trend
changed
with
the belated discovery
of
poverty in America in
the
early
1960s.
The
new

1958
dollars, personal
per
capita income fell from
$1,870
to
$1,810
in
6
CHAPTER
ON
E
that
period). In fact,
most
Americans saw a substantial increase in personal
per
capita income from
1950
to
1970.
In
1955
it was measured
at
$2,027
and in
1960
it was
$2,157,

million
to
181
million
between
1950
and
1960.
During this period the fed-
eral interstate highway system was launched, and
more
Americans purchased
automobiles.
Home
ownership reached an all-time high
as
many
Americans
moved from cities
to
newly built suburbs. Further, consumers
had
unprece-
dented access to leisure products such
as
televisions and fast food services such
as
McDonald's. Medical advances such as the development
of
a polio vaccine,

five
Americans lived below the poverty
level. Whereas only
about
IS
percent
of
whites were designated
as
poor,
al-
most one-half
of
African Americans lived below the poverty level.
6
Yet
most
Americans remained unaware
of-or
chose
to
ignore-the
plight
of
those
who
remained in poverty; some analysts, policy makers, and
politicians, however, made occasional
mention
of

as
mi-
norities.
9
Michael Harrington's
1962
book
The
Other America: Poverty in the
United
States also played a key role in publicizing the economic disparities in
the United States.
10
Noting the
common
belief
that
America
now
was pros-
perous,
Harrington
highlighted
the
simultaneous presence
of
Widespread
poverty. Indeed,
much
of

inferior ed-
ucation and absence
of
job
skills handicapped the working poor.
12
Harrington's
proposed
solutions centered
on
the
federal
governmenfs
providing financial resources to and central coordination
of
the fight against
CHANGING
VIEWS
OF
POVERTY
AND
EARLY
CHILD
DEVELOPMENT
7
poverty.
He
called for a comprehensive
approach-including
expansion

ana-
lysts explored its various forms and chronicled
the
plight
of
the
poor.
The
findings were usually optimistic, indicating that poverty could
be
eliminated
in the near future. Such optimism reflected growing faith
among
academics
that recent advances in social science provided the knowledge and tools nec-
essary
to
improve American society.
14
Thus, heightened awareness
of
do-
mestic poverty in this period, together
with
the belief
that
the nation could
eliminate it, inspired many policy makers and academics
to
search for

that
home
life was "the finest
product
of
civilization. Children should
not
be
deprived
of
it except for
urgent
and com-
pelling reasons. Except in unusual circumstances, the
home
should
not
be
broken for reasons
of
poverty.

16
Despite this bias, the
number
of
day care centers and day nurseries
grew
in the late
nineteenth

licensed day nurseries
peaked
at
about seven hundred in
1916
but
declined in the
1920S
as
new
state-run moth-
ers"
pension programs emphasized
home
care and social
work
professionals
criticized day nurseries for their lax oversight
of
participating families.
18
In the
1920S
the nursery school emerged
as
an attractive alternative
to
the
day nursery.
Nursery

increasingly discredited day nurseries
hoped
to
incorpo-
rate the education
component
as
well, they could
not
afford
to
provide
the
same set
of
services
to
their poorer clientele.
19
The Great Depression
of
the
1930S
created hardships for many families, and
thus the few remaining day nurseries endeavored
to
become
more
flexible
in

dynamics
of
this
program
proved interesting; although
the
WPA
emphasized the education
component
of
day nurseries, in practice the teach-
ers had
no
training in early childhood development
or
education.
The
quality
of
federal services could
not
match
that
of
the
better
private nursery schools.
Federal day nurseries were short-lived, however.
As
the

The
temporary
labor shortage helped
many
Americans accept
the
idea
that
working
mothers
were patriotic, although others (such
as
staff
of
the
u.S.
Children~s
Bureau) opposed
the
entry
of
women
into
the
labor
force-especially
those
with
children
under

Facilities Act
of
1941 (the
Lanham
Act)
permitted
the
federal
government to fund child care centers; approximately six
hundred
thousand
children participated in such programs
between
1942 and 1946.
25
Many
of
the
Lanham Act centers replaced WPA institutions, and a few defense industries
even provided their
own
day care facilities. Although
most
mothers
relied
on
relatives
or
neighbors for child care, some
took

states where they oper-
ated continued
to
fund them.
The
postwar day care situation resembled
that
of
the
1920S:
most
working mothers relied
on
friends and relatives for assis-
tance and a small minority utilized day nurseries
or
nursery schools. Postwar
society, however,
nurtured
a gradual acceptance
of
the
idea
that
married
women
could
work
outside the
home

incorporated into public school systems. In fact, the
number
of
kindergarten
students rose from
481,000
in
1920
to
723,000
in
1930
and, following a slight
decline during
the
depression, reached
one
million in
1950
and
two
million
by
1960.
28
The
nature
of
these institutions varied considerably,
and

children
of
working mothers.
Changing Views
of
Child
Development
Until
the
mid-twentieth century, leading child development and testing
ex-
perts assumed that IQ was hereditary and fixed at birth. Moreover,
most
ex-
perts held
that
children's learning
depended
on
their physical
and
mental
maturation
and
that
there was little pointin trying
to
increase IQ
by
means

established a
laboratory
to
measure
preschool children's mental and physical development. In
1927,
as a result
of
his research, Baldwin called for a nationwide system
of
preschools
to
help
children develop
to
their full potential. During the
1930S
and early
1940S,
Uni-
10
CHAPTER
ON
E
versity
of
Iowa scientists such
as
Kurt Lewin, George Stoddard,
and

they criticized the statistical
methods employed in the Iowa studies.
32
Thus, dissenting research was sup-
pressed and the prevailing view
that
IQ remains constant over time and
that
children's learning depends
on
maturation
dominated the field
of
child devel-
opment
during the first half
of
the
century.
Donald
O.
Hebb
issued a
major
challenge
to
the
fixed-IQ
orthodoxy
in

standardized intelligence tests.
33
In the
1950S
and early
1960s
academics' and policy makers' view
of
early
childhood development and education shifted dramatically. Scholars such as
J.
McVicker
Hunt
and Benjamin
S.
Bloom argued
that
children's intelligence
was
not
fixed at
birth
and could
be
significantly altered by improving their en-
vironment. In
1961
Hunt
published his seminal
book

been
changing
rapidly. These changes make sensible
the
hope
that,
with
improved under-
standing
of
early experience,
we
might counteract some
of
the
worst effects
of
cultural deprivation and raise substantially the average level
of
intellectual
capacity."
35
This
new
approach, according
to
Hunt, was essential for overcoming
the
cultural deprivation
of

commonly
handicaps
them
ever after in scholastic competition

At this stage
of
history and knowledge,
no
one
can blueprint a
program
of
preschool
enrichment
that
will
with
certainty
be
an
effective antidote
CHANGING
VIEWS
OF
POVERTY
AND
EARLY
CHILD
DEVELOPMENT

emphasized the
first four years
of
life in particular
as
the "critical period" for a child's intellec-
tual development: "Thus height
growth
for boys
is
almost
as
great during the
9 months from conception
to
birth
as
it
is
during
the
9 years from age 3
to
age
12.
General intelligence appears
to
develop as
much
from conception

part
because they did
not
understand
the
nature
of
early learning
among
humans.
38
Hunt
and Bloom produced some
of
the
earliest and
most
effective argu-
ments for early childhood education in
the
late
1950S
and early
1960s.
Their
work
provided
much
of
the

on
the Preschool Environment
of
Socially Disad-
vantaged Children
in
1962
and the University
of
Chicago's Research Confer-
ence
on
the Education
of
the Culturally Deprived in
1964
grappled
with
the
issue
of
poverty and the difficulties faced by
poor
children in school.
40
During
this period, researchers piloted experimental
programs
designed
to

Ford Foundation
projects,
one
in Baltimore and
one
in
North
Carolina, even developed
preschool
programs
to
meet
the
needs
of
disadvantaged children.
42
These
efforts contributed
to
a
new
awareness
that
it might
be
possible
to
enhance
IQ by focusing

K-
12
schooling, poverty
elimination, and early childhood education. Moreover, several
key Johnson poverty and education policy analysts served
in
the
Kennedy White House, and many
of
the proposals initiated dur-
ing the Kennedy administration
to
address these issues were re-
vised and incorporated intoJohnson's
war
on
poverty.
Early
Federal Involvement
in
Education
Although the u.S. Constitution does
not
directly
mention
a fed-
eral role in education, the government has periodically encour-
aged schools
or
helped finance them.