Showing papers by "George Davey Smith published in 1975"

The Effects of Preschool Education: Some American and British Evidence

Abstract: Social research findings rarely point unswervingly to clear policy conclusions. The recent history of preschool research and practice well illustrates the twisting, turning relationship. In the I96os, as policy interest focused on preschool education, the lack of any research on its effects, particularly in poverty areas, served as an indictment of the way social research ignored important practical questions [i]. But a decade later, having inherited the confusing mass of American material from Head Start and other projects, are we any better placed to offer clear guidance on preschool policy? It is true that at times preschool research has appeared to endorse a simple straightforward message. Bloom's original findings about the amount of variance in adult IQ scores that could be predicted at an early age, were rapidly interpreted into unfounded statements about the 'amount of intelligence' formed at any age point [2]-a 'truth' that for example finds its way, with spurious precision, into the Ladybird Learning with Mother series-"Almost half of your child's intelligence will be decided by four and a half." Enrolling children in preschool groups seemed the answer to almost every social or educational problem. The reaction, when these problems were not solved, was equally dogmatic: 'Head Start has failed' or the even more general 'education cannot compensate for society'. But these positions have hardly been taken up before they have been challenged by further research and experiment. The problem in the face of conflicting results is to draw out any coherent patterns and establish the implications for preschool policy. In a recent review of preschool research in Great Britain [3], Barbara Tizard has bravely attempted to summarise some of the conclusions. She suggests that as a result of American and British research there are now generally agreed answers to six of "the simpler questions about the influence of nursery school attendance on children's achieve