Early Training Project: Longitudinal Study of Preschool Intervention Impact, 1962-1979

A longitudinal study assessed the impact of a preschool educational intervention on 92 African-American children from low-income homes in the Upper South. Initiated in 1962, the study followed participants from before school entry through high school, collecting data on intellectual development, school achievement, attitudes, and family demographics. The Murray Research Archive holds the data, which was collected by researcher Susan W. Gray.

Use Cases

• Modeling the impact of early educational intervention on school achievement based on test scores from first grade to high school.
• Analyzing the relationship between family demographics and child development outcomes based on parent interviews and family data.
• Studying the development of attitudes like motivation and persistence over time based on indices of the affective domain.
• Evaluating the longitudinal effects of a summer preschool and home visit program based on pre-, during, and post-intervention tests.

Strengths

• Longitudinal design with data collection spanning 17 years, from 1962 to 1979.
• Includes multiple data sources: test scores, school records, teacher ratings, and parent/participant interviews.
• Focused cohort of 92 children with clearly defined selection criteria for low-income, African-American families.

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to the specific two-city study in the Upper South.

Provenance

Source

Susan W. Gray; The Murray Research Archive holds the data.

Collection Method

Experimental study with intervention and control groups, using tests, interviews, and records.

Time Range

1962-1979

Freshness

Data collection ended in 1979; last update date is unknown.

Geography

Two small cities in the Upper South, United States