Significant Benefits: The High/Scope Perry Preschool Study
Through Age 27
This is a summary of
the High/Scope Education Research Foundation's Perry Preschool Project,
a longitudinal preschool-effectiveness study now in its third decade.
It reviews the study's cumulative findings and most recent conclusions,
and considers why some early childhood programs have long-term effects.
It also examines the generalizability of this study's findings to other
children living in poverty and to other high-quality, active learning
preschool programs. The program is defined as a high-quality, active
learning program for 3- and 4-year olds. High/Scope's Home Page is
http://www.highscope.org/ .
Design of the Study
The High/Scope Perry Preschool
Project is a study assessing whether high-quality preschool programs can
provide both short- and long-term benefits to children living in poverty
and at high risk of failing in school. The study has followed into adulthood
the lives of 123 such children from African American families who lived
in the neighborhood of the Perry Elementary School in Ypsilanti, Michigan,
in the 1960s.
The youngsters participating
in the study were randomly divided into a program group, who received
a high-quality, active learning preschool program, and a no-program
group, who received no preschool program. The status of the two groups
was assessed annually from ages 3 to 11, at ages 14-15, at age 19, and
again at age 27, on variables representing certain characteristics, abilities,
attitudes, and types of performance.
The Findings at Age 27
In comparison with the no-program
group, the program group had
- significantly higher
monthly earnings at age 27 (with 29% vs. 7% earning $2,000 or more per
month);
- significantly higher
percentages of home ownership (36% vs. 13%) and second car ownership
(30% vs. 13%);
- a significantly
higher level of schooling completed (with 71% vs. 54% completing 12th
grade or higher);
- a significantly
lower percentage receiving social services at some time in the previous
10 years (59% vs. 80%); and
- significantly fewer
arrests by age 27 (7% vs. 35% with 5 or more arrests), including significantly
fewer arrests for crimes of drug making or dealing (7% vs. 25%).
The program males,
as a group, had significantly higher monthly earnings at age 27 than the
no-program males (with 42% vs. 6% earning over $2,000) because the program
males had better paying jobs.
Differences Between Program
Females and No-Program Females
- Program females
had significantly higher monthly earnings at age 27 (48% vs. 18% earning
over $1,000) because the program females had found jobs (80% vs. 55%).
- Significantly fewer
program females, during their years in school, spent time in programs
for educable mental impairment (8% vs. 37%).
- Significantly more
program females completed the 12th grade or higher (84% vs. 35%).
- Significantly more
program females were married at age 27 (40% vs. 8%).
Differences Between Program
Males and No-Program Males
- Significantly fewer
program males received social services at some time between ages 18
and 27 (52% vs. 77%).
- Significantly fewer
program males had 5 or more lifetime arrests (12% vs. 49%).
- Significantly more
program males owned their own homes at age 27 (52% vs. 21%).
Over the lifetimes
of the participants, the preschool program returns to the public an estimated
$7.16 for every dollar invested.
Educational-Performance Findings
Over the years, the program
group produced significantly higher scores than the no-program group on
tests of
- intellectual performance
(IQ) from the end of the first year of the preschool program to the
end of the first grade at age 7;
- school achievement
at age 14; and
- general literacy
at age 19.
In addition, as compared
with the no-program group, the program group
- spent significantly
fewer school years in programs for educable mental impairment (with
15% vs. 34% spending a year or more); and
- had a significantly
higher percentage reporting at age 15 that their school work required
preparation at home (68% vs. 40%).
Conclusions
- Children's participation
in a high-quality active learning preschool program at ages 3 and 4
created the framework for adult success.
- The lives of both
the program group and the no-program group have followed a predictable
pattern of development since their early school years.
- During the school
years, the preschool program's effects on females were different from
its effects on males.
- The essential process
connecting early childhood experience to patterns of improved success
in school and the community seemed to be the development of dispositions
that allowed children to interact positively with other people and with
tasks.
- The lifetime economic
benefits to the preschool program participants, their families, and
the community far outweigh the economic cost of their high-quality,
active learning preschool program.
Qualifications
- The findings describe
two groups, but not every individual in those groups.
- Preschool programs
of high-quality early education are only one part of the solution in
breaking the cycle of poverty.
- The preschool program
responsible for the effects listed had these four defining aspects of
high quality:
A developmentally
appropriate, active learning curriculum.
An organized system of inservice training and systematic, ongoing curriculum
supervision.
An efficient, workable method of parent inclusion and involvement.
Good administration, including a valid and reliable, developmentally
appropriate assessment procedure; a monitoring system; and a reasonable
adult-child ratio.
¹ Based on Chapter
10 of Significant Benefits: The High/Scope Perry Preschool Study Through
Age 27, edited by L. J. Schweinhart and D. P. Weikart (Ypsilanti,
MI: High/Scope Press, 1993).
This summary is provided by the Texas Youth Commission. For more information about programs and research relating to children, youth, and family issues, contact us by e-mail at prevention@tyc.state.tx.us or by telephone at (512) 424-6336.
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