Discussion
In contrast to the report by the Consortium for Longitudinal Studies that early IQ gains eroded within 3 years of school entry, and academic gains within 5-6 years, the intellectual and academic gains from the Abecedarian program persisted through 7 years in school. That preschool treatment/control IQ and academic achievement gains were maintained to that point represents one of the broadest and most for an longlasting benefits reported to date for an early childhood program. In fact, the Abecedarian preschool treatment/control IQ difference is slightly more pronounced at age 12 than at age 8. These results pertain whether the Full Scale or the Verbal IQ scores are compared, although results for the Full Scale IQ are somewhat attenuated by the fact that Performance IQ scores do not conform to the expected pattern. The critical point to be made from the Abecedarian longitudinal IQ results is that, from infancy through age 12, subjects having preschool treatment maintained an IQ advantage over those without the early treatment.
The children treated in this study were judged to be full-term, healthy infants, but at risk for mild mental retardation and academic failure on the basis of a develop mental context associated with the "environtype" of poverty (Sameroff, 1989). The High Risk Index initially used to determine subject eligibility more successfully predicted academic problems than mild mental retardation, given that, overall, 44% of the an subjects repeated a grade during the first 7 years in school, and 72% utilized some form of special resource. Al- though only three 12-year-olds of 101 tested earned IQ scores of 70 or below, it is note- worthy that all who scored in this range lacked the preschool educational experience. The likelihood of scoring in the Borderline range was significantly reduced for children who experienced the Abecedarian preschool program.
Because it began in early infancy and continued the age of the Abecedarian intervention represents, for children treated in both the preschool and school-age phases, an unusually protracted period of continuous educational intervention, possibly the longest yet provided a group of poverty children. The Abecedarian children treated only in preschool had the same length of exposure to preschool intervention as those treated in Milwaukee. The length of treatment may be one reason why both programs have found IQ gains persisting longer than those reported by most other early intervention programs. While these results imply that very early treatment is important, they do not permit a definitive test of the degree to which having intervention during the sensorimotor period might have been critical to the maintenance of an I advantage. Only a study with staggered age at entry could definitively address that question.
Ceci (1991) argues that schooling, per se, has a positive impact on IQ. The present data do imply that, for impoverished c dren, the earlier in the life span education occurs, the greater its benefit is likely to be. In support of Ceci's thesis is the fact that, as greater numbers of preschool C children enrolled in other community preschools, an upturn in their preschool IQ was seen (Bur chinal, e, & Ramey, 1989, Ramey & Campbell, 1984). Although family involvement in the educational process has been associated with better school progress in lowincome children (Comer, 1985; Epstein, 1984), the present results indicate that preschool intervention had the stronger impact. The maintenance of gains in academic achievement through age 12 represents a critical and practical outcome for Abecedarian subjects. The hypothesis that academic test scores would show a linear increase as a function of the number of years of previous treatment was confirmed for WJ Reading, Knowledge, and written Language scores The pattern did not hold for Mathematics; children who had preschool treatment alone (EC) scored slightly better on math at age 12 than did the EE group. For all subjects, the positive effects of the schoolage treatment were very much overshadowed by those of the preschool program. That the biological mother's IQ was also highly related to academic outcomes is to be expected, but it is gratifying that the treatment effect remains strong even when the effects of this major influence and that of the concurrent educational level of the mother are controlled. Putting the Abecedarian academic out comes in the context of other early intervention studies, the significantly improved academic test scores found for previously treated Abecedarian 12-year-olds is in con trast to the lack of treatment/control differences in early adolescent academic performance for children treated in the Florida and Milwaukee studies. The Houston PODC shows similar treatment/control dif ferences in academic outcomes for early adolescents, but their positive results are tem pered by an attrition rate of almost half of their subject pool. The same caveat applies to the lack of differences found for children in the Florida program. Attrition for the Abe cedarian study was minimal. At age 12, with over 90% of the appropriately treated sub jects participating, the present followup can demonstrate a continued advantage in academic test performance for children treated in infancy and the preschool years Basing his argument on the Consortium for Longitudinal Studies finding of no lasting effect on "developed abilities" but significantly better school progress," Wood head (1988) contends that the benefit of early treatment may lie not so much in producing higher levels of academic accomplishment as in changing children's behavioral styles. Treated children may relate to schools in a different way and, hence, be perceived differently by teachers, allowing them to avoid retention and special placement The an only Abecedarian partially support this contention were somewhat lower for subjects treated in preschool, but children with treatment in both phases (EE) were placed into special education more often than those with s possible that Home School Resource Teacher actually resulted in more placements because Resource Teachers advocated for treated receive costly and scarce resources.
The majority of the subjects in this study were African American, and it is to low income African Americans that the results should be generalized. The design does not permit us to separate the effects of poverty on those of cultural forces in African American children which may have influenced their adjustment to a school system in which they represented a minority. It is important to note, however, that all treatment/control differences described in this study are not among different racial groups but, rather, among initially comparable groups of African american children.
The most important policy implication of these findings is that early educational intervention for impoverished children can have long lasting benefits, in terms of in proved cognitive performance. This underscores the critical importance of good early environments and suggests that the focus of debate should now be shifted from whether government should play a role in encouraging good early environments to how these environments can be assured.
Impoverished parents need and want economic independence, but along with the need to work goes the need for child care There must be available caregiving facilities of high quality, Therefore, support for good quality child care, whether in preschool centers or family day care homes, needs to be provided at all levels: local, state, federal, and within the private sector.
Finally, it might be argued that the Abecedarian program could not be replicated on a wider scale because of cost. Certainly providing 5-8 years of intervention was costly but so is the lifelong loss of productivity associated with academic failure and hopelessness. The present results imply that treatment during the preschool years was more beneficial. Societal trends are clearly
Discussion In contrast to the report by the Consortium for Longitudinal Studies that early IQ gains eroded within 3 years of school entry, and academic gains within 5-6 years, the intellectual and academic gains from the Abecedarian program persisted through 7 years in school. That preschool treatment/control IQ and academic achievement gains were maintained to that point represents one of the broadest and most for an longlasting benefits reported to date for an early childhood program. In fact, the Abecedarian preschool treatment/control IQ difference is slightly more pronounced at age 12 than at age 8. These results pertain whether the Full Scale or the Verbal IQ scores are compared, although results for the Full Scale IQ are somewhat attenuated by the fact that Performance IQ scores do not conform to the expected pattern. The critical point to be made from the Abecedarian longitudinal IQ results is that, from infancy through age 12, subjects having preschool treatment maintained an IQ advantage over those without the early treatment.The children treated in this study were judged to be full-term, healthy infants, but at risk for mild mental retardation and academic failure on the basis of a develop mental context associated with the "environtype" of poverty (Sameroff, 1989). The High Risk Index initially used to determine subject eligibility more successfully predicted academic problems than mild mental retardation, given that, overall, 44% of the an subjects repeated a grade during the first 7 years in school, and 72% utilized some form of special resource. Al- though only three 12-year-olds of 101 tested earned IQ scores of 70 or below, it is note- worthy that all who scored in this range lacked the preschool educational experience. The likelihood of scoring in the Borderline range was significantly reduced for children who experienced the Abecedarian preschool program. Because it began in early infancy and continued the age of the Abecedarian intervention represents, for children treated in both the preschool and school-age phases, an unusually protracted period of continuous educational intervention, possibly the longest yet provided a group of poverty children. The Abecedarian children treated only in preschool had the same length of exposure to preschool intervention as those treated in Milwaukee. The length of treatment may be one reason why both programs have found IQ gains persisting longer than those reported by most other early intervention programs. While these results imply that very early treatment is important, they do not permit a definitive test of the degree to which having intervention during the sensorimotor period might have been critical to the maintenance of an I advantage. Only a study with staggered age at entry could definitively address that question. Ceci (1991) argues that schooling, per se, has a positive impact on IQ. The present data do imply that, for impoverished c dren, the earlier in the life span education occurs, the greater its benefit is likely to be. In support of Ceci's thesis is the fact that, as greater numbers of preschool C children enrolled in other community preschools, an upturn in their preschool IQ was seen (Bur chinal, e, & Ramey, 1989, Ramey & Campbell, 1984). Although family involvement in the educational process has been associated with better school progress in lowincome children (Comer, 1985; Epstein, 1984), the present results indicate that preschool intervention had the stronger impact. The maintenance of gains in academic achievement through age 12 represents a critical and practical outcome for Abecedarian subjects. The hypothesis that academic test scores would show a linear increase as a function of the number of years of previous treatment was confirmed for WJ Reading, Knowledge, and written Language scores The pattern did not hold for Mathematics; children who had preschool treatment alone (EC) scored slightly better on math at age 12 than did the EE group. For all subjects, the positive effects of the schoolage treatment were very much overshadowed by those of the preschool program. That the biological mother's IQ was also highly related to academic outcomes is to be expected, but it is gratifying that the treatment effect remains strong even when the effects of this major influence and that of the concurrent educational level of the mother are controlled. Putting the Abecedarian academic out comes in the context of other early intervention studies, the significantly improved academic test scores found for previously treated Abecedarian 12-year-olds is in con trast to the lack of treatment/control differences in early adolescent academic performance for children treated in the Florida and Milwaukee studies. The Houston PODC shows similar treatment/control dif ferences in academic outcomes for early adolescents, but their positive results are tem pered by an attrition rate of almost half of their subject pool. The same caveat applies to the lack of differences found for children in the Florida program. Attrition for the Abe cedarian study was minimal. At age 12, with over 90% of the appropriately treated sub jects participating, the present followup can demonstrate a continued advantage in academic test performance for children treated in infancy and the preschool years Basing his argument on the Consortium for Longitudinal Studies finding of no lasting effect on "developed abilities" but significantly better school progress," Wood head (1988) contends that the benefit of early treatment may lie not so much in producing higher levels of academic accomplishment as in changing children's behavioral styles. Treated children may relate to schools in a different way and, hence, be perceived differently by teachers, allowing them to avoid retention and special placement The an only Abecedarian partially support this contention were somewhat lower for subjects treated in preschool, but children with treatment in both phases (EE) were placed into special education more often than those with s possible that Home School Resource Teacher actually resulted in more placements because Resource Teachers advocated for treated receive costly and scarce resources. The majority of the subjects in this study were African American, and it is to low income African Americans that the results should be generalized. The design does not permit us to separate the effects of poverty on those of cultural forces in African American children which may have influenced their adjustment to a school system in which they represented a minority. It is important to note, however, that all treatment/control differences described in this study are not among different racial groups but, rather, among initially comparable groups of African american children. The most important policy implication of these findings is that early educational intervention for impoverished children can have long lasting benefits, in terms of in proved cognitive performance. This underscores the critical importance of good early environments and suggests that the focus of debate should now be shifted from whether government should play a role in encouraging good early environments to how these environments can be assured. Impoverished parents need and want economic independence, but along with the need to work goes the need for child care There must be available caregiving facilities of high quality, Therefore, support for good quality child care, whether in preschool centers or family day care homes, needs to be provided at all levels: local, state, federal, and within the private sector. Finally, it might be argued that the Abecedarian program could not be replicated on a wider scale because of cost. Certainly providing 5-8 years of intervention was costly but so is the lifelong loss of productivity associated with academic failure and hopelessness. The present results imply that treatment during the preschool years was more beneficial. Societal trends are clearly
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