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At follow-up in 1976, low-income children who had attended infant and preschool programs in the 1960's had significantly higher rates of meeting school requirements than did controls, as measured by lower frequency of placement in special education classes and of being retained in grade (held back).
Based on the history of education and other human services (e.g., health, welfare, housing, and social work) in the United States, this article analyzes the differing political status among providers of student services. The resulting political pressures structure professional research norms and mitigate against professional collaboration at both the delivery and research levels. The chapter identifies four key issues that need addressing in the design of collaborative research projects to be responsive to converging political pressures. These issues emerge not only from the efforts to collaborate but from the differing training, backgrounds, and interests of evaluators and researchers from various service agencies and schools, and from the divergent needs of clients around health, housing, welfare, job preparation, and K-12 education. The role of the school is key because shared services often occur on the school site, where children spend the most time.
Studies investigated the long term achievement of Get-Set children, Philadelphia Head Start, who participated in SCILS, the Self-Controlled Interactive Learning Systems program at the Drexel Early Childhood Center, and who were later enrolled in eighteen Philadelphia public and parochial schools. The original purpose for the program was to find ways of creating an environment to enhance learning, creativity, and exploration. It was assumed that if the above occurred it would be reflected in standardized testing regardless of subject matter. Its premise is that learning involves both the acquisition of skills, training, and the formation of new concepts, going beyond the “given,” education. The proper use of instructional technology is to enable the learner—the child—to acquire skills which can be utilized in new concept formation. The teacher's role then shifts from concentration on training to involvement in education. However, if instructional technology is to be effective in helping students acquire mastery it should incorporate: 1) choice, 2) control by the student, 3) instantaneous dynamic feedback to the student which allows for self-control, self-organization, self-regulation, and self-correction, and 4) enhancement of adapting behavior. Fifty-seven Head Start children who were enrolled in the Drexel Early Childhood Center for an average of 2.54 years were the subject of these studies. Fifty-three of the subjects were followed through the sixth grade, fourteen through the ninth and a small group (all those who could be found) were followed into the tenth and eleventh grades. SCILS children are at or above grade level in reading and reading comprehension with thirty hours of instructional time. Outcomes compared with other Early Intervention Programs, in the United States, since the 1960s, show that with SCILS the Head Start children's achievement reaches the level of average middle-class children.
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