Preschool Study Finds Positive Effects For Poor Children

By Linda Jacobson

A newly published study on a long-running preschool program in Chicago provides further evidence that well-designed educational services in early childhood can have positive, lasting effects for disadvantaged children.

The research, which appeared last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association , focused on the 34-year-old Child-Parent Center program. The authors found that the children who had participated in the half- day preschool program were more likely to go on to complete high school and less likely to become delinquent than those who didn't take part.

"This is first-rate, solid science," Edward Zigler, a professor of psychology at Yale University and one of the architects of the federal Head Start preschool program, said in a press release. "It shows beyond reasonable doubt that good- quality child care and development programs for disadvantaged children can sharply cut delinquency...