A widespread consensus has developed in favor of public support for preschool programs for young children living in poverty. Head Start and state prekindergarten programs today serve about two-thirds of U.S. 4-year-olds living in poverty. Federal Head Start spending has tripled in the past decade, and nearly two-thirds of the states provide similar programs for 4-year-olds (see box, p. 58).
Influential groups of citizens, such as the Committee for Economic Development, have lent their political clout to this development—partly because of the findings of the High/Scope Perry Preschool Study that a high-quality preschool program cuts participants' lifetime arrest rate in half, significantly improves their educational and subsequent economic success, and provides taxpayers a return equal to 716 percent of their original investment in the program, a return that outperformed the U.S. stock market during the same period of time (Schweinhart et al. 1993; Barnett 1996).
We have less consensus on the goals of preschool programs. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (Bredekamp and Copple 1997) strongly favors developmentally appropriate practice, but this position has found detractors. Academic critics, such as Mallory and New (1994), argue that developmentally appropriate practice is socially constructed, context-bound, and insensitive to cultural and individual differences in development. Conservative critics, such as Hirsch (1997), see it as progressive ideology without adequate research support.
Should early childhood curriculum be adult-directed or child-initiated? Or should there be a balance of these two approaches? Is there a well-defined, research-proven model we can follow? The High/Scope Preschool Curriculum Comparison Study (the study that followed the High/Scope Perry Preschool Study), which was begun in 1969 and now includes data through age 23, sheds new light on these questions (Schweinhart and Weikart 1997 a and b).
This study assesses which of three theoretically distinct preschool curriculum models works best. The study has followed the lives of 68 young people born in poverty who were randomly assigned at ages 3 and 4 to one of three groups, each experiencing a different curriculum model.
Three Curriculum Models
- Direct Instruction was a scripted approach in which the teacher presented activities and the children responded to them. Classroom activities were sequences of academic lessons, emphasizing positive reinforcements of correct responses. Teachers clearly defined academic goals in reading, arithmetic, and language. The psychological tradition was behaviorist (Bereiter and Engelmann 1966).
- The High/Scope Curriculum was an open-framework approach in which teacher and child planned and initiated activities and worked together. Classroom activities were partly the result of the plan-do-review sequence, planned by the children themselves and supported by the teachers. These activities reflected experiences intended to promote intellectual, social, and physical development. The psychological tradition was constructivist and cognitive-developmental (Hohmann and Weikart 1995).
- The traditional Nursery School was a child-centered approach in which children initiated activities and the teachers responded to them. The teachers created classroom themes from everyday events and encouraged children to actively engage in free play. The goal was to create an environment in which children could develop naturally, and the psychological tradition was psychoanalytic (Sears and Dowley 1963).
Program staff implemented the curriculum models independently and to high standards, in two-and-a-half-hour classes five days a week and home visits every two weeks. Because all three groups had biweekly home visits, these visits alone cannot explain the differences that were found, although they may have intensified the curriculum models' effects. All other aspects of the program were virtually identical. So, having taken into account slight differences in the groups' gender makeup, we are confident that outcome differences represent the effects of the three curriculum models.
Advantages at Age 23
Based on reports by the young people, either the High/Scope group or the Nursery School group had a total of 10 significant advantages over the Direct Instruction group, but the Direct Instruction group had no significant advantages over these groups. The High/Scope and Nursery School groups did not differ significantly from one another on any outcome variable.
- Only 6 percent of either the High/Scope or the Nursery School group needed treatment for emotional impairment or disturbance during their schooling, as compared to 47 percent of the Direct Instruction group. Because 47 percent is well above the typical rate for this population (17 percent of the comparable no-program group in the High/Scope Perry Preschool Study required such treatment), the Direct Instruction program experience appears to have left some of its participants with serious negative emotional residue.
- Forty-three percent of the High/Scope group and 44 percent of the Nursery School group at some time up to age 23 engaged in volunteer work, as compared to 11 percent of the Direct Instruction group. The programs that encouraged children to initiate their own activities had more graduates engaging in volunteer work in the community as young adults, suggesting greater awareness of the needs of others and their responsibility to take action to help.
- Only 10 percent of the High/Scope group had ever been arrested for a felony, as compared to 39 percent of the Direct Instruction group. Given the intractability of crime, this fourfold reduction in felony arrests is of great importance. It parallels the finding of the High/Scope Perry Preschool Study through age 27 that only 7 percent of the program group (which used child-initiated activities) but 35 percent of the no-program group had been arrested five or more times (Schweinhart et al. 1993). These data indicate the clearly different levels of personal and social responsibility that the High/Scope and Direct Instruction groups developed.
- None of the High/Scope group had ever been arrested for a property crime, as compared to 38 percent of the Direct Instruction group. Property crime may be distinguished from violent and drug-related crimes by its emphasis on assaulting authority. The High/Scope model places authority (teachers) in the role of resource and support. Direct Instruction gives teachers power and control and requires children to submit. As young adults, more of the former Direct Instruction preschoolers strike out at authority.
- Twenty-three percent of the High/Scope group reported at age 15 that they had engaged in 10 or more acts of misconduct, as compared to 56 percent of the Direct Instruction group. Although this finding did not reappear in self-reports at age 23, it presaged the age-23 arrest findings.
- Thirty-six percent of the High/Scope group said that various kinds of people gave them a hard time, as compared to 69 percent of the Direct Instruction group. Apparently, the High/Scope group more willingly accepted responsibility for their own actions than did the Direct Instruction group and had developed ways to relate positively to authorities and others, rather than to blame or attack them for their actions.
- Thirty-one percent of the High/Scope group had married and were living with their spouses, as compared to none of the Direct Instruction group. Marriage may be seen as a step that takes personal responsibility and a willingness to adapt to others.
- Seventy percent of the High/Scope group planned to graduate from college, as compared to 36 percent of the Direct Instruction group. While no differences were found in actual high school graduation rates or in the highest year of schooling, such planning by the High/Scope group reflects greater optimism, self-confidence, and aspirations for the future.
- Only 9 percent of the Nursery School group had been arrested for a felony at ages 22-23, as compared to 34 percent of the Direct Instruction group.
- None of the Nursery School group had ever been suspended from work, as compared to 27 percent of the Direct Instruction group.
Goals of Early Childhood Education
This study through age 23 found that young people born in poverty experienced fewer emotional problems and felony arrests if they had attended a preschool program based on child-initiated learning activities focused broadly on children's development, rather than scripted direct instruction focused specifically on academics.
These findings suggest that the goals of early childhood education should not be limited to academic preparation for school, but should also include helping children learn to make decisions, solve problems, and get along with others. Scripted teacher-directed instruction, touted by some as the surest path to school readiness, may purchase a temporary improvement in academic performance at the cost of a missed opportunity for long-term improvement in personal and social behavior. On the other hand, child-initiated learning activities seem to help children develop their social responsibility and interpersonal skills so that they become more personally and socially competent, fewer of them need treatment for emotional impairment or disturbance. Fewer are arrested for felonies as young adults.
Although the High/Scope and Nursery School groups did not differ significantly on any outcome variable at age 23, the High/Scope curriculum model is easier to replicate than the Nursery School approach because of High/Scope's extensive documentation, training program, and assessment system. Well-documented, research-proven curriculum models based on child-initiated learning appear to have the best potential for supporting successful child development.
