1 Laboratory of Human Development Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
Early education became a topic of great public interest about 5 years ago, when Head Start was being established and support was being mustered for it. One problem maintaining the racial issue clearly lay in the schools. Minority group children were flunking out of society in their public school years and more and more evidence showed that their difficulties were already apparent in the first grade. It seemed reasonable, then, to move toward preparing these children for school by the establishment of programs of preschool education.
However reasonable the mission of compensatory preschool education, its implementation had to be attempted in the face of important shortages of information and resources.