Perry Preschool Study Quiz

HighScope Educational Research Foundation is a research institute that studies early childhood education based on the methods of the Perry Preschool study. The Perry Preschool study was conducted from 1962-1967 in Michigan to boost the cognitive skills of 123 disadvantaged African American children with low IQs. Families were randomly assigned to one of two groups: the intervention and a control group. By the time children were 10, there wasn't much of a difference in how children in the two groups performed on tests of cognitive ability. However, adults from the treatment group were much more likely to graduate high school, much more likely to make earnings, much more likely to go on to college, much less likely to commit crime. The study was conducted in the 1960s, so researchers have been able to follow the children who went through the Perry Preschool Program through adulthood. Heckman found multigenerational benefits of the program: children of participants in the program appear to have benefitted. The Perry Project saved society $7 to $12 for every $1 invested, mostly due to reduced crime.