Perry Preschool Project
BPP11
1999 (Updated 11/2006)
PDF Version of Fact Sheet
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Program Overview:
The Perry Preschool Project provides high-quality early childhood education to disadvantaged children in order to improve their later school and life performances. The intervention combats the relationship between childhood poverty and school failure by promoting young children’s intellectual, social and physical development. By increasing academic success, the Perry Preschool Project is also able to improve employment opportunities and wages, as well as decrease crime, teenage pregnancy, and welfare use.
Program Targets:
The Project is aimed at low socioeconomic families who have children, ages 3 and 4.
Program Content:
The Perry Preschool Project is a two-year intervention that operates 2.5 hours per day, 5 days per week, for seven months per year, and includes weekly home visitations by teachers. Its success is largely due to the following components:
- A developmentally appropriate curriculum that views children as active, self-initiated learners.
- Small classrooms of no more than 20 children and at least 2 staff that allows a more supervised and supportive learning environment.
- Staff who are trained in early childhood development and education, who receive supervision and on-going instruction, and who meet frequently with parents and other caregivers.
- Sensitivity to the noneducational needs of disadvantaged children and their families, which includes providing meals and recommending other social service agencies .
- Ongoing monitoring and evaluation of both teachers’ activities and children’s behaviors and development.
Program Outcomes:
Evaluations have demonstrated a wide range of successful outcomes for Perry Preschool children, compared to those who did not receive intervention, including:
- Less delinquency, including less contact with juvenile justice officials, fewer arrests at age 19, and less involvement in serious fights, gang fights, causing injuries, and police contact.
- Less antisocial behavior and misconduct during elementary school and at age 15.
- Fewer lifetime arrests through age 40 (36% vs. 55% with 5 or more arrests); fewer arrests for violent crimes (32% vs. 48%), property crimes (36% vs. 58%), and drug crimes (14% vs. 34%).
- Higher academic achievement, including higher scores on standardized tests of intellectual ability and higher high school grades.
- Fewer school dropouts at age 19 (33% vs. 51%), and higher rates of high school graduation.
- Greater commitment to school and more favorable attitudes about high school.
- More employed at age 27 (69% vs. 56%) and age 40 (76% vs. 62%); higher median annual earnings at 27 ($12,000 vs. $10,000) and 40 ($20,800 vs. $15,300).
- Greater economic independence and less reliance on public assistance, including welfare usage.
- Fewer pregnancies and births for women at age 19.
References
Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2005, June). Head Start Impact Study: First Year Findings. Washington, DC: Author.
Berrueta-Clement, J.R., Schweinhart, L.J., Barnett, W.S., Epstein, A.S., & Weikart, D.P. (1984). Changed Lives: The Effects of the Perry Preschool Program on Youths Through Age 19. Ypsilanti, MI: The High/Scope Press.
Epstein, A.S. (1993). Training for Quality: Improving Early Childhood Programs through Systematic Inservice Training. Ypsilanti, MI: The High/Scope Press.
Schweinhart, L.J., Montie, J., Xiang, Z., Barnett, W.S., Belfield, C.R., & Nores, M. (2005). Lifetime Effects: The High/Scope Perry Preschool Study through Age 40 . Ypsilanti, MI: The High/Scope Press.
Schweinhart, L.J., & Weikart, D.P. (1980). Young Children Grow Up: The Effects of the Perry Preschool Program on Youths Through Age 15. Ypsilanti, MI: The High/Scope Press.
Schweinhart, L.J., & Weikart, D.P. (1997). The High/Scope Preschool Curriculum Comparison Study through Age 23. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 12(2), 117-143.
Weikart, D.P., Bond, J.T., & McNeil, J.T. (1978). The Ypsilanti Perry Preschool Project: Preschool Years and Longitudinal Results Through Fourth Grade. Ypsilanti, MI: The High/Scope Press.
Contact Perry Preschool
PERRY PRESCHOOL PROGRAM |
| For general program information, contact: |
| Lawrence Schweinhart, Ph.D. High Scope Educational Research Foundation 600 North River Street Ypsilanti, MI 48198-2898 Phone: (734) 485-2000 Fax: (734) 485-5210 Email: info@highscope.org Website: www.highscope.org/Research/PerryProject/perrymain.htm |
