The purpose of this paper is to identify some variations among experimental programs and discuss the manner in which such variations seem to affect a program's success. To accomplish this purpose an in-depth analysis of a few major preschool intervention studies is made in terms of four pertinent variables: (1) Curriculum Model (2) Home…

When total scores on the California Preschool Social Competency Scale (CPSCS) of disadvantaged children attending New York State experimental prekindergarten programs in 1975-76 were replaced by factor scores derived through principal component analysis, exposure time had no significant relationship to three components of the scale:…

A 3-month pilot project was undertaken at the University of Texas to gain experience in administering the Cynthia Buchanan Language Program (Buchanan, 1967) and to test its effectiveness in making meaningful changes in the language development of disadvantaged Mexican-American preschoolers. A group of 114 Mexican-American children were chosen as…

The New York State Experimental Prekindergarten Program, which operates in 52 school districts, is designed to reduce potential educational deficits of economically disadvantaged children. This article reports on the program's effects on cognitive functioning of children in their kindergarten years and discusses implications for educational…

Project Head Start and Project Follow Through are jointly exploring the effectiveness of 12 different educational approaches, or models, for the education of young children from poverty families. Investigations include study of (1) the effect of a continuous intervention program which begins with Head Start and extends through third grade, (2) the…

To compare the effectiveness of the traditional and the experimental approaches to Head Start classrooms, 68 children and six teachers in San Francisco participated in an educational experiment. The traditional approach emphasizes the children's internal motivation resulting from spontaneous free play and warm, accepting teachers, while the…

This report describes the context, design, and findings of an evaluation of a welfare reform initiative, the Recycling Fund Concept, in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. The proposed fund would allocate money to parents of preschool children who receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). The concept assumes that lack of child care…

This study develops and tests an instrument to assess the fidelity of the intended program, i.e., experimental treatment in the evaluation of a preschool program. During the school year (1972-73) CEMREL (Central Midwestern Educational Lab) investigated the consequences of different levels of training on implementation of the Demonstration and…

Sixty-seven Mexican-American children were administered a special 7-week Head Start language training program during the summer of 1967. Three basic treatments were used, and there was a control group. Two teachers were used, thus raising the number of groups to eight. The three basic treatments involved a structured English language training…

An evaluation of the New York State Experimental Prekindergarten Program was begun in 1975 to provide longititudinal data on the effects of prekindergarten on children's development over a period of 5 years. Data were collected on a variety of items, including children's test performance at various times, family background, ratings by teachers,…

This paper explores, from the perspective of a local practitioner, phases and effects of implementing a national education demonstration project at the local level. The pivotal role of the locality, its history and its economic realities, is emphasized. Drawing from her experience in planning and implementing a demonstration effort in a…

This experiment was based on the assumption that the academic failure of the disadvantaged or middle class child is due to a failure of instruction and that if above-normal learning schedules were maintained, the second year of an enrichment program would not show the customary drop in gains from the first year. The subjects of this study were 43…