Tracing the benefit of preschool, 36 years later

As 3- and 4-year-olds, they couldn't have known that their lives would be fascinating to researchers for decades to come. But when the subjects of the High/Scope Perry Preschool Study turned 40 recently, a tracker showed up again - just as when they had turned 19 and 27 - to find out about their jobs, families, and even run-ins with the law.

While many studies have shown preschool's short-term academic effects, this one offers a rare glimpse into how far-reaching the gains can be. Although it tracked just 123 students - at-risk African-Americans from Ypsilanti, Mich. - the half that were randomly assigned to a high-quality preschool program graduated high school at a higher rate and have had significantly better incomes and more stable personal lives than the half that had no preschool education (see chart, page 13).

Considered a gold standard by many education experts, the Perry study has helped build a national consensus about the need to give low-income children a boost before they start kindergarten. But controversy has raged over the quality of the federally backed Head Start program and preschool initiatives that now exist in about 40 states.

"Only 13 states require that preschool teachers have a bachelor's degree and early-childhood certification," says Steven Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University. Some Head Start programs use the High/Scope approach to teaching, but with low pay and high turnover the norm, most public programs don't come close to providing what the Perry kids received - including a low student-teacher ratio and weekly home visits.

As half a dozen states move beyond serving low-income children by committing to "universal" preschool, skeptics wonder how they expect to succeed when K-12 education is still struggling to improve quality. "It is a positively poor idea to expand downward the very system that is currently failing the kids," says Darcy Olsen, president and CEO of the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix.

But in a few states, at least, quality is the mandate as they get ready to expand preschool - by constitutional amendment in Florida, for instance, and by a court ruling in New Jersey.

Oklahoma has already implemented a plan for high-quality universal preschool. It is voluntary but open to students regardless of income, and about two-thirds of the state's 4-year-olds participate. Oklahoma not only requires that lead teachers be college educated and certified, but it pays them the same rate as public school teachers.

Last week, Oklahoma officials released a study showing strong results. "It appears they are very definitely getting pre-K right," says William Gormley, coauthor of the study and a professor of public policy at Georgetown University. He measured gains beyond what would have occurred if children had simply aged for one year without preschool - including a 52 percent gain in letter and word recognition, 27 percent in spelling, and 21 percent in pre-math skills.

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