What is "follow through"

vb. 1 (context idiomatic English) To finish; to complete, especially, of a commitment. 2 (context idiomatic English) to continue moving the arms or legs after striking e.g. a ball

1. v. carry a stroke to natural completion after hitting or releasing a ball

2. pursue to a conclusion or bring to a successful issue; "Did he go through with the treatment?"; "He implemented a new economic plan"; "She followed up his recommendations with a written proposal" [syn: follow up, follow out, carry out, implement, put through, go through]

Follow Through was the largest and most expensive experimental project in education funded by the U.S. federal government that has ever been conducted. The most extensive evaluation of Follow Through data covers the years 1968-1977; however, the program continued to receive funding from the government until 1995. Follow Through was originally intended to be an extension of the federal Head Start program, which delivered educational, health, and social services to typically disadvantaged preschool children and their families. The function of Follow Through, therefore, was to provide a continuation of these services to students in their early elementary years.

In President Lyndon B. Johnson's 1967 state of the union address, he proposed $120 million for the program, to serve approximately 200,000 children from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, when funding for the project was approved by the United States Congress, a fraction of that amount, merely $15 million —was authorized. This necessitated a change in strategy by the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), the government agency charged with oversight of the program Instead, program administrators made the "brilliant decision… (to) convert Follow Through from a service program to a research and development program".

Follow Through planners felt that they were responding to an important challenge in the education of disadvantaged students. It was generally hypothesized that the mere provision of specific supports in the form of federal compensatory programs - such as Head Start and Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act - would result in increased academic achievement for disadvantaged children, if implemented faithfully by committed teachers. However, studies had shown that despite its successes, in general any gains that children made from Head Start (in measures of academic achievement) "faded out" during the first few years of elementary school. It was unclear to policy makers and others if the elementary school experience itself caused this phenomenon, or if specific approaches to instruction within schools were the problem. Follow Through intended to solve the problem by identifying what whole-school approaches to curriculum and instruction worked, and what did not. Subsequently, effective models were to be promulgated by the government as exemplars of innovative and proven methods of raising the academic achievement of historically disadvantaged students.

"Follow Through" is a single by Gavin DeGraw released in 2005. It is featured on his 2003 album, Chariot. The song has been featured on several television shows, including One Tree Hill and Scrubs and, from 2008-2010, played in the UK and Italian advertisements for Carte D'or.

Follow through or follow thru may refer to:

• Follow through (cricket), sport term
• " Follow Through (song)", a 2003 pop/soft rock music song and single (2005) by Gavin DeGraw originally on his album Chariot
• Follow Thru (musical), 1929 musical comedy
  • Follow Thru, 1930 film based on the musical