HighScope Educational Research Foundation

HighScope, formally the HighScope Educational Research Foundation, is an early childhood education research organization based in Ypsilanti, Michigan, founded in 1970 by psychologist David P. Weikart. Its curriculum and methods grew out of the 1962 Perry Preschool study and draw on the child development theories of Jean Piaget, John Dewey, Lev Vygotsky and Jerome Bruner, emphasizing a shared-control approach in which activities combine child-initiated exploration with adult guidance and teachers act as facilitators rather than traditional instructors. HighScope is best known for the Perry Preschool research itself, which tracked disadvantaged children into adulthood and documented substantial long-term benefits, including higher high-school graduation rates, higher earnings and less criminal involvement, with estimates suggesting each dollar invested returned between 7 and 16 dollars in societal benefits.