Multiple sources provide data about Head Start nationally, each with unique strengths and limitations. The 2019 National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) may offer complementary insights to other national Head Start data sources like the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), the Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (Baby FACES), and the Head Start Program Information Report (PIR). 2019 NSECE captures information about the availability and use of early care and education (ECE) in the United States. This brief discusses the potential uses of the 2019 NSECE for Head Start research, including its strengths and limitations and how it compares to other sources of national Head Start data.

Why This Matters

The 2019 NSECE is unique among sources of national Head Start data, offering large sample sizes and the ability to compare Head Start-funded programs with other early care and education providers. This brief presents considerations for researchers interested in using the 2019 NSECE to answer questions related to Head Start. It presents results from analyses of missing values and precision of estimates for Head Start constructs in the 2019 NSECE. The brief also includes examples of research questions that can and cannot be answered using the 2019 NSECE.

What We Found

• The 2019 NSECE has sufficiently large sample sizes of Head Start–funded centers, center staff, and family child care homes for most analyses. These large sample sizes make the 2019 NSECE unique among sources of national Head Start data.
• Users interested in conducting analyses about Head Start–funded family child care homes must access the restricted-use home-based provider survey dataset.
• Many variables in the 2019 NSECE that are relevant for answering Head Start research questions have low levels of missingness and adequate precision to calculate reliable estimates.
• The 2019 NSECE allows users to compare centers and family child care homes that receive Head Start funds with centers and family child care homes that receive funds from other sources. It can also be used to answer questions about centers’ and family child care homes’ sponsorship, enrollment, staffing, benefits, and professional development opportunities, as well as questions about centers’ characteristics, classroom characteristics and enrollment, and classroom staff, professional development activities, and learning activities.
• The 2019 NSECE cannot be used to answer questions about children’s enrollment in Head Start–funded centers and family child care homes. It has limited data on child outcomes, early care and education quality, curricula, individual classrooms’ funding, and other constructs of potential interest to Head Start researchers. The 2019 NSECE also does not contain information about grant recipients or organizations within which centers or family child care homes operate, meaning it cannot be used for analyses of Head Start grant recipients.
• The 2019 NSECE datasets include variables that allow users to create subgroups of Head Start–funded centers and center staff, though sample sizes for subgroups of Head Start–funded family child care homes may not be sufficiently large for many analyses.

How We Did It

This brief uses data from the 2019 NSECE center-based provider, center-based workforce, and home-based provider surveys’ public-use and restricted-use datasets. The research team identified centers and family child care homes that reported receiving Head Start funding, created subgroups within this sample using program characteristics (such as the ages of enrolled children funded by Head Start, and the share of enrolled children funded by Head Start), and calculated the share of missing values and the coefficient of variation for more than 90 variables across these subgroups to determine patterns of missingness and precision.