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studies provide reasonably valid estimates of the long-term

effects of early intervention on disadvantaged children--

those on Perry Preschool and Abecedarian.53  However, as

the following two sections demonstrate, neither study makes

a convincing case for universal preschool.

Perry Preschool

The Perry Preschool Project was a longitudinal experi-

ment designed to study the effects of early intervention

on disadvantaged children.  It was the early childhood

intervention program most frequently cited in research

reviews between 1983 and 1997.54   It is heavily cited in

the literature and legislation in support of universal

preschool.

The experiment was conducted by investigators at the

High/Scope Educational Research Foundation in Ypsilante,

Michigan, from 1962 to 1965.  The investigators reported

their most recent findings in Significant Benefits: The

High/Scope Perry Preschool Study through Age 27.55

The Perry Preschool Project was an intervention pro-

gram for three- and four-year-olds deemed at risk for

"retarded intellectual functioning and eventual school

failure."56  It involved either one or two years of half-

day preschool for seven months each year and periodic home

visits.  One hundred twenty-three children participated, 58

children in the experimental group and 65 in the control

group.  All of the children were of low socioeconomic sta-

tus and had IQs in the range of 70 to 85.57  The High/Scope

study is frequently cited because it is the most compre-

hensive longitudinal study of any comparable intervention

program.  Participants were studied through age 27.

Analyses show that students who participated in the

preschool program fared better over the long term on a

variety of educational and social measures than did chil-

dren in the control group.  As Lawrence J. Schweinhart,

Research Division chair at High/Scope, writes, "Program

participation had positive effects on adult crime, earn-

ings, wealth, welfare dependence, and commitment to mar-

riage."58  An examination of the Perry children at age 27

found the following results: participants had 11.9 years

of schooling versus 11 years for the control group; 7 per-

cent of participants had been arrested for drug dealing

versus 25 percent of the control group; 59 percent of par-

ticipants received welfare assistance as adults versus 80

percent of the control group.59  On the basis of those and

other findings, Schweinhart concluded, "The program provided