A study by UNC's Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) shows that children who have lower English-language abilities than their classmates benefit most from programs like Head Start and public pre-k. How and why this is true are not so clear.

"We know that early childhood is a critical period for children who are dual-language learners," said Virginia Buysse, senior scientist at FPG and lead author of the review. "Many of them face the difficult task of learning a new language while acquiring essential skills to be ready for kindergarten."

According to the researchers involved in this study, in 2006 nearly one in three children enrolled in Head Start or Early Head Start lived in a household in which a language other than English was spoken.

"English proficiency has been linked to school performance, educational attainment, and the future economic mobility of Latino students," said study co-author Ellen Peisner-Feinberg noting that dual-language learners enter kindergarten with skills that differ substantially from other students. "These children lag behind their peers when they begin school, though, and the gap only widens as they grow older."

There was also evidence to suggest the grasp of more than one language could be an advantage.

"We also found some support across several studies both for using English as the language of instruction and for incorporating the home language into strategies that focused on language and literacy," said Buysse. "And none of the studies detected any negative effects of early education programs and instructional practices that target dual-language learners."

One advantage of these Head Start programs is versatility and simplicity. Head Start programs can be easily accommodated and set up. In Hughson, a small southwest of Modesto, California, a very successful Head Start program has been serving the needs of migrant workers as part of the Central California Migrant Head Start, which operates in 50 locations for 3,100 students.

"We know from 20 years of research that a lot of Latino parents prefer to use home-based care, and that preschools appear to be excessively formal and sometimes not inviting institutions (to those parents)," said University of California, Berkeley education professor Bruce Fuller to Ed Source.

The migrant Head Start serviceremedies this by actively seeking out its students.

"We go where the families are," said Janet Orvis-Cook, the executive director of child and family services for Stanislaus County Office of Education. "We go to the church, to flea markets, to the farmers and to labor contractors. Out in the fields they wear bandanas to keep the sweat off, so we have bandanas that have our name and all our phone numbers."

This type of commitment does not go unnoticed. Recently the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services named the migrant Head Start program a "Center of Excellence" on the basis of "long-standing and consistent records of implementing exemplary services and demonstrating positive outcomes for children and families."

Head Start was one of the outcomes of US President Lyndon B. Johnson's "War on Poverty" which he declared in a State of the Union address in 1964. The pilot programs for Head Start began in 1965 and 1966. In 1969 US President Richard Nixon moved Head Start from the Office of Economic Opportunity to the Office of Child Development in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Unfortunately, estimates suggest that access to these types of programs is not as high as it should be.

According to Ed Source, a Los Angeles County study found that there are only 38 preschool seats available for every 100 children aged 3 to 5 years old, and only 7 seats available for every 100 children under 3 years old.

Complicating the matter is that the disparity between availability and need becomes even wider in low income neighborhoods, suggesting that those who are most at need can also have the most difficult time getting help. This is something that all researchers emphasize the need to address.

"Exposure to preschool is essential if these kids are going to be able to start kindergarten on par with middle-class white kids," Fuller said.