The original study was conducted from 1962-1967 in
Ypsilanti, Michigan under the guidance of psychologist
David Weikart and Perry Elementary School principal
Charles Eugene Beatty. It was intended 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. For 2 years during the regular school year (39 weeks a year), 3-4 year old children would come to a classroom for 2 and a half hours a day. Students worked on projects where "they planned tasks, they executed tasks, and then they reviewed the tasks collectively."
Results 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. Because the study was conducted in the 1960s, researchers have been able to follow the children who went through the Perry Preschool Program through adulthood. Economist and Nobel laureate
James Heckman has found that 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." Heckman also found multigenerational benefits of the program:
children of participants in the program appear to have benefitted. According to Heckman, "We find some very strong effects. The children of the participants are healthier. The children of the participants are also earning more. They have better social and emotional skills, are more likely to graduate high school and go on to college, less likely to engage in the criminal justice system, so they're less likely to be incarcerated or even have ever been arrested."
Cost-effectiveness James Heckman estimates that the Perry Project saved society $7 to $12 for every $1 invested, mostly due to reduced crime. HighScope itself reports that for every tax dollar invested in the early care and education program, $7 are saved for taxpayers by the time the participant is 27 years old, $13 are saved for tax payers by the time the participant is 40 years old, and that there is a $16 total return including increased income to the participants. See also Heckman, Moon, Pinto, Savelyev, & Yavitz (2010a, b). ==See also==