HighScope

1 Where it came from

HighScope's preschool curriculum grew out of the Perry Preschool study in Ypsilanti, Michigan, which HighScope describes as comparing low-income children who attended its program with similar children who did not. Perry served 58 children in the program. HighScope's researchers then followed the children to age 40. HighScope also ran a second, smaller study comparing three preschool curricula, and publishes its own assessment tool.

2 The big ideas

• Active participatory learning. Children learn best by doing: handling materials, trying things, and talking with other children and adults.
• Plan, do, review. Children decide what they'll do, do it, then reflect on it. HighScope links this daily sequence to executive function, the planning and self-control skills school depends on.
• Shared control. Adults and children share power in the room: children make real choices, and adults support and extend them.
• Encouragement, not praise. Adults describe what a child did instead of saying "Good job!", and treat conflicts as problems to solve together.
• Eight content areas. Approaches to Learning; Social and Emotional Development; Physical Development and Health; Communication, Language and Literacy; Mathematics; Creative Arts; Science and Technology; and Social Studies, broken into 58 key developmental indicators.

3 What a lesson looks like

A HighScope morning: at planning time, small groups of four-year-olds sit with their teacher. One child points to the block area on a picture chart and says she'll build a garage for the toy cars; another says he'll paint a dinosaur. For the next hour, work time, children carry out their plans while adults move around the room, join in, ask questions and jot down short notes on what they see. Then everyone cleans up. At recall (review) time the groups meet again: the builder shows her garage and explains how she made the ramp stay up; the painter says his dinosaur turned into a dragon. Later in the day there's small-group time with a teacher-chosen activity (sorting buttons, say, or rhyming names), a large-group time with music and movement, meals, outdoor play, and time for self-care.

4 Reading and math

Reading and math are taught through the key developmental indicators in two of the eight content areas, Communication, Language and Literacy, and Mathematics. They show up both inside children's own plans (labeling a building, counting cars) and in the small-group times teachers plan around particular skills. We didn't read the exact wording of HighScope's literacy and math indicators, so for specifics (phonological awareness, counting) look at the curriculum itself.

5 The adult's job

Adults are partners in play. They set up the room and the daily routine, help children make and carry out plans, join play to scaffold it, plan small-group activities, use encouragement rather than praise, and help children solve their own conflicts. Throughout the day they write brief anecdotal notes on what children say and do, and use those notes to plan.

6 How progress is checked

Ongoing, written anecdotal observation during play is the heart of it. HighScope's own tool, COR Advantage, covers birth to kindergarten across nine content areas and is built from those daily written anecdotes. There are no tests for children.

7 Strengths and criticisms

8 What the research says

Two studies carry HighScope's name. Perry Preschool followed its children to age 40; HighScope reports benefits in education, earnings, crime, family relationships and health, including 76% employed at 40 against 62% of the comparison group, and a return of $12.90 for every dollar spent. Economist James Heckman and colleagues reanalyzed the study in 2010, adjusting for problems in how children were assigned, and said their estimate of the return probably understates it, though it relies on projecting past age 40. Critics stress that 58 children in one town is a small base. The Curriculum Comparison Study randomly assigned 68 children in poverty, at ages 3 and 4, to HighScope, a traditional nursery school, or a scripted Direct Instruction program. By age 23, its authors reported about 10% (HighScope) and 9% (nursery) with felony arrests against 34–39% for Direct Instruction, and 47% of the Direct Instruction group treated for emotional impairment against 6% of the other two. Critics point to the tiny groups and dispute the significance. Separately, a 2019 study found little support for HighScope as a brand beyond Perry. The fair reading: a well-run, play-based program served a small group of children very well, and the curriculum's broader advantage over other good preschool programs is not proven.

9 How to try it

1. Plan before play. Before free play, ask "What will you do?" Let your child point, draw or say it. Write their plan down in a few words.
2. Review after. When play ends, ask "What did you do? How did you make that?" and listen. Five minutes is plenty.
3. Describe instead of praising. Try "You used all the long blocks for the bridge" in place of "Great job!"
4. Solve conflicts together. When two children want the same thing, name the feelings, ask each what happened, and let them suggest solutions before you choose one.
5. Keep quick notes. Write one line a day about something your child said or did. Over a month you will see patterns to plan around.

10 Using Peabody with it

• Observations and portfoliosWrite short notes by area and skill and print them as a portfolio, close to HighScope's daily anecdotes; it does not use or replace COR Advantage.
• Daily schedule makerLay out planning, work, clean-up, recall, small-group and large-group times and print the day for the wall.
• Preschool skills checklistA plain list of skills to watch for across areas, to compare with what your notes show.
• Preschool learning gamesA short game can be one choice at planning time; keep it brief and talk it through at recall.

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11 Programs that follow it

Programs and materials often named with this approach: HighScope Preschool Curriculum, COR Advantage.