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K-12 LEADERSHIP PRACTICES
Testing Theory to Explain and Solve the Head Start Fade
(The Fade Phenomenon)
Deborah Tenjeras Clarke
Charles M. AchillesABSTRACT
Theory often drives best practice until empirical evidence demonstrates the theory’s
validity. Much research and theory have coalesced around how and why small classes
improve K–3 processes and outcomes, especially for children in poverty. In the present study,
researchers considered one connection between empirical evidence and evolving theory.
Since 1970, the “Fade Effect” has puzzled educators. Researchers synthesized
requirements for Pre–K evidence-based outcomes paired with early elementary long-term,
small-class outcomes, generated theory to explain the Fade, and then tested the theory: “The
Fade will decrease if conditions for long-term, small-class results are applied to Head Start
though grade four.” Treatment conditions were: (a) early intervention (Pre–K or K), (b)
duration (three or more years in reduced class size), and (c) intensity (same teacher for
academic subjects all day at each grade level), and (d) heterogeneity.
A pilot test using retrospective data to track students 2001–2002 provided empirical
evidence that students meeting the theoretic conditions had diminished Fade when compared
to the following: (a) state grade-four proficiency levels and (b) peers not meeting theoretic
conditions. Researchers used existing Pre–K, Head Start, and small-class grades K–3 data to
refine the theory.
SETTING THE STAGE
Education administrators are charged with organizing the schooling process to improve
education opportunities for children. American educators have long been challenged by two
conundrums: (a) Head Start Fade since about 1970 and (b) Bloom’s (1984) two sigma
problem, finding methods of group instruction as effective as one-on-one tutoring.
Professional knowledge has grown over the years, and education improvement efforts should
employ judicious use of new knowledge. Why then does the Head Start Fade persist, and why
have educators not used newly available data and theory to answer Bloom’s (1984) two sigma
problem? How is one problem related to the other?
THE HEAD START FADE PHENOMENON
The Head Start Fade has troubled American educators, particularly because of education’s
continued failure to meet the education needs of impoverished students. Children pay a hefty
price for living in poverty. Cooley (1993) highlighted that only three poverty-related
Deborah Tenjeres Clarke, Superintendent of Schools for Zion-Benton Township, Ill
C. M. Achilles, .Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ