Post written by Janet Brown, Senior Early Childhood Program Specialist, and Kwesi Rollins, Director of Leadership Programs at the Institute for Educational Leadership
In Lifelines for Poor Children, economist and Nobel laureate James Heckman argues that quality early learning programs represent our best national education investment due to evidence of societal benefits from longitudinal studies of Perry Preschool and Abecedarian early childhood programs.
The Perry Preschool Project and Abecedarian programs worked extensively with families in their home and community contexts. Successes from such early learning and family support efforts suggests that cross sector community collaborations, such as those in community schools are ideal contexts for scaling up early childhood programming for low income children and families. Such schools share program approaches with Perry Preschool and Abecedarian including home visiting and follow up supports for children and families in their communities.
Perry Preschool teachers conducted weekly home visits to families during the two years their 3 and 4 year olds participated in the program. Abecedarian—with 15 home visits per year and ongoing support until age 8—provided children and families with a seamless array of early learning resources including summer activity