HighScope

HighScope is an early-childhood education research foundation, curriculum developer, publisher, and professional-learning provider headquartered in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Its work grew out of the Perry Preschool Project, a longitudinal study launched in 1962 under psychologist David P. Weikart and conducted with Perry Elementary School in Ypsilanti. The project served young children from disadvantaged African American families and examined whether a structured, high-quality preschool experience could improve educational and life outcomes. HighScope was established in 1970 to continue and extend this research tradition and to translate it into practical tools for educators. The organization is particularly associated with the HighScope Curriculum. The approach treats children as active learners who make choices, pursue projects, and reflect on their experiences. Its best-known planning, doing, and reviewing sequence gives children opportunities to decide what they intend to do, carry out activities using materials and social interaction, and discuss or revisit what happened. Adults are expected to provide intentional support without taking control of the learning process. In this model, teachers act as facilitators and partners who observe children, identify their developmental levels, arrange suitable environments, and introduce guidance or questions that extend learning. HighScope's educational philosophy was initially influenced by developmental theories associated with Jean Piaget and educational ideas linked to John Dewey. Later interpretations incorporated Lev Vygotsky's concept of the zone of proximal development and Jerome Bruner's idea of adult scaffolding. The resulting approach emphasizes shared control: children initiate many activities while adults guide, support, and document development. The curriculum is designed for active learning and typically addresses broad developmental areas including social and emotional development, language, literacy, mathematics, science, physical development, creative expression, and approaches to learning. The Perry study became influential because later follow-up research reported differences between the preschool and control groups in high-school completion, employment, higher education, and contact with the criminal justice system, even though early differences in conventional cognitive test performance diminished by childhood. Economists and education researchers, including James Heckman and collaborators, used the study as part of a wider body of evidence about the long-term and intergenerational effects of high-quality early education. The results have also been discussed in relation to the importance of teacher quality, family engagement, and sustained developmental support. Because the original sample was small, the findings are generally interpreted as important longitudinal evidence rather than as a universal guarantee for every preschool program. Today, HighScope's activities extend beyond historical research. It develops curriculum materials and assessment resources, publishes professional texts, offers teacher education and training, and supports implementation by schools, childcare providers, and early-learning organizations. The HighScope approach has been used in the United States and adapted or implemented in other countries, including through organizations and schools that license or apply the curriculum. Its institutional identity therefore combines research, professional services, publishing, and an education methodology rather than a conventional consumer product brand. HighScope remains principally positioned around evidence-informed early-childhood practice, active learning, educator development, and the long-term value of investing in young children.

HighScope's institutional history is closely connected to the Perry Preschool Project, an educational intervention begun in 1962 in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Psychologist David P. Weikart worked with Charles Eugene Beatty, the principal of Perry Elementary School, on a study involving young children from disadvantaged African American families. Children were assigned to an intervention group or a control group. During the regular school year, children in the intervention group attended a preschool classroom for part of the day, where they worked on activities that involved planning, carrying out, and reviewing projects. Teachers also visited participating families' homes, linking classroom activity with parent-child interaction and the home environment. The project was designed to investigate whether an intentional preschool experience could improve children's cognitive development and later educational performance. Follow-up results showed that differences in standard cognitive test scores were not consistently sustained through childhood, but later assessments identified meaningful differences in several social and economic outcomes. Subsequent follow-ups reported higher rates of high-school completion, employment, and postsecondary education among members of the preschool group, along with lower levels of arrest and detention. Researchers studying the project have emphasized that the intervention involved qualified teachers, active learning, and regular family engagement, rather than preschool attendance alone. The findings encouraged Weikart and colleagues to create an organization capable of continuing research and sharing practical methods with educators. The HighScope Educational Research Foundation was founded in 1970. Its curriculum development drew on child-development theory, especially the work associated with Jean Piaget, as well as John Dewey's emphasis on experiential education. Over time, the approach also incorporated concepts associated with Lev Vygotsky and Jerome Bruner, particularly the importance of responsive adult guidance and scaffolding. HighScope's central pedagogical model gives children substantial agency in the learning process. Children are encouraged to select activities and pursue intentions, while adults prepare the environment, observe behavior, offer materials, ask questions, and help children extend their thinking. The approach describes this relationship as shared control: learning is neither left entirely to spontaneous child activity nor directed entirely by the adult. Planning, doing, and reviewing provide a recurring structure through which children develop language, memory, problem-solving, self-regulation, and social skills. The foundation subsequently expanded its work into curriculum publishing, assessment, educator training, and program support. Its publications have included curriculum guidance and research on the Perry Preschool Project, while its training services have helped early-learning professionals apply active-learning principles in classrooms and childcare settings. The curriculum has also been used outside the United States, including by international schools and organizations that implement or adapt HighScope methods. HighScope's reputation has been shaped both by its practical curriculum and by the long-term research record associated with Perry Preschool. Economic analyses, notably work by James Heckman and other researchers, have cited the project in discussions of the returns to early-childhood investment, including possible effects on education, earnings, crime, and later generations. HighScope reports cost-benefit estimates based on these longitudinal findings, but such estimates depend on the assumptions and scope of the studies from which they are derived. The original sample was relatively small, so the research is best understood as a significant case study within the broader early-childhood evidence base. In its current form, HighScope is not primarily a mass-market brand or a school operator. It is a mission-driven education organization whose activities combine research, curriculum development, professional services, publishing, assessment, and training. Its enduring distinction is the effort to connect developmental research with observable classroom practice and to give educators a structured way to support young children's initiative, reflection, and long-term development.

• 2004

  Perry Preschool findings through age 40 are published

  [1]HighScopeen.wikipedia.org

  A further longitudinal report examines participant outcomes through age 40 and reinforces the project's influence on early-education policy discussions.

• 1993

  Perry Preschool findings through age 27 are published

  [1]HighScopeen.wikipedia.org

  HighScope Press publishes a major follow-up report examining the long-term outcomes of the Perry Preschool participants through age 27.

• 1970

  HighScope Educational Research Foundation is founded

  [1]HighScopeen.wikipedia.org

  The foundation is established by psychologist David P. Weikart to continue early-childhood research and develop practical educational methods.

• 1967

  Original Perry intervention concludes

  [1]HighScopeen.wikipedia.org

  The initial intervention period ends after several school years of preschool participation and associated family engagement.

• 1962

  Perry Preschool Project begins

  [1]HighScopeen.wikipedia.org

  David P. Weikart and colleagues begin the Ypsilanti preschool study that later becomes the principal research foundation for HighScope's educational approach.

An evidence-informed early-childhood education research and professional-learning organization that converts developmental research into active-learning curriculum, assessment, training, and implementation support.

• Early-childhood curriculum

  HighScope Curriculum

  HighScope's core curriculum organizes early learning around active participation, child choice, intentional adult support, and systematic observation. Children plan activities, carry them out, and review their experiences. Educators create developmentally appropriate learning environments, observe individual progress, and use interactions and materials to extend children's thinking across areas such as language, literacy, mathematics, science, physical development, social relationships, and creative expression.

• Teacher training

  HighScope Professional Learning

  HighScope provides training and professional-development services for early-childhood educators and program leaders. The work supports implementation of active-learning principles, classroom organization, adult-child interaction, observation, assessment, and reflective teaching. Training is intended for schools, childcare providers, and other organizations seeking to apply the HighScope approach consistently.

• Educational assessment

  HighScope Assessment Resources

  HighScope develops assessment and observation resources intended to help educators document children's development and plan responsive instruction. These resources complement the curriculum by connecting what teachers observe in everyday classroom activity with decisions about learning environments, materials, adult support, and individual developmental goals.

• Educational publishing

  HighScope Press publications

  HighScope Press publishes curriculum guides, professional books, and research reports concerning early-childhood education. Its publications include major reports on the Perry Preschool Project as well as practical material for educators working with young children.

• 1970

  Establishment of a research-to-practice foundationStrategy

  Background

  The Perry Preschool Project generated a body of longitudinal evidence but also created a need for an institution that could continue research and make its educational principles usable by practitioners.

  Action taken

  David P. Weikart founded the HighScope Educational Research Foundation, which developed curriculum, publications, training, and implementation support around active learning and child development.

  Aftermath

  HighScope evolved into a continuing education organization rather than remaining only a historical research project, allowing its methods to be used by early-learning providers in the United States and internationally.

  Source

• Expansion from research into curriculum and professional servicesStrategy

  Background

  Research findings alone do not determine classroom practice, creating a need for structured curriculum materials, assessment tools, educator training, and program support.

  Action taken

  HighScope developed and disseminated a curriculum centered on active learning, shared control, planning, doing, reviewing, observation, and responsive adult guidance.

  Aftermath

  The organization became known both for the Perry Preschool evidence base and for a practical early-childhood model that could be implemented by schools and childcare programs.

  Source

1. 1HighScopeen.wikipedia.org
2. 2HighScope Educational Research Foundationhighscope.org