The History of High/Scope – a summary

• An important concern in the USA and elsewhere, at the end of the 1950’s and 1960’s was the continuing plight of disadvantaged children. 
• In 1962 Dr David Weikart, then Director of Special Services for the Ypsilanti Public Schools, Michigan USA sought to provide early education for children judged to be destined to educational school failure.
• In 1963 the name ‘High/Scope’ was coined – ‘high’ to signify aspirations for children, ‘scope’ the breadth of vision that it was hoped would be reached. It was initially the name of the summer camp for adolescents and David Weikart and his staff worked throughout his lifetime in developing programmes for adolescents. In 1995 ‘campers’ became ‘students’ and the camp an institute – the ‘Institute for IDEAS’   (Initiative, Diversity, Expectations Achievement, Service).
• The curriculum David Weikart devised broke new ground and was based on Piaget’s theories of development. He felt strongly that, as children progress at their own pace, their classroom life should not only accommodate this but accommodate children’s interests and the activities that stem from them.
• Such learning environments needed to provide a variety of materials from which active learning could arise and from which children could acquire problem learning skills through experiences of their own choice.
  
  The curriculum therefore moved from teachers thinking about content and attainment to a curriculum as a developmental tool to providing children with opportunities to exploit their strengths.
• In the High/Scope classroom children did the thinking and talking and adults began to do the listening and thinking. High/Scope created a unique classroom environment in which the environment serviced choice and assisted activities and the adult became supporter and observer of active learning.
• In 1968 as Director of Research and Development for Ypsilanti Public Schools David Weikart established four new projects including a demonstration and comparison of three preschool curricula.
• At the end of the initial research programme the question was not does quality early years provision work but will we provide it? Practitioners were able to see High/Scope high quality practice at the Demonstration Pre-School attached to the High/Scope Educational  Research Foundation which David Weikart established in 1970
• Lifetime effects: The High/Scope Perry Preschool Project (40yr Research) (pdf format) 
• In the 1970’s a classic dilemma arose, how could the small group of experienced staff who were involved in the Perry Preschool Project satisfy an increasingly large and growing demand for training and support? A cascade model of training was devised which was practitioner based and married the ‘what’ of high quality early years education to the ‘how’. The courses were (and are) based on periods of practice to embed and reflect on the theory being ‘sandwiched’ between course sessions.
• In 1979 ‘Young Children in Action’, the curriculum in book form was published. This was superceded in 2002 by ’Educating Young Children’.
• In the 1970s there also emerged in the UK a concern for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children, but it was 1984 before the first training and outcome monitoring began in the UK. This was funded by the Aga Khan and Gulbenkian Foundations, the Nuffield Foundation and an anonymous donor. Among those trained as Endorsed Trainers for High/Scope were staff from Barnardo’s and this influenced a long term funding commitment from the organisation. Positive findings by researchers and practitioners of the High/Scope Approach resulted in the establishment of High/Scope in the UK and the opening of the High/Scope Institute (now High/Scope UK) in 1990.
• The transferability of the High/Scope Approach has been clearly demonstrated. Its curriculum model is used extensively in over twenty other countries and training initiatives have been successfully implemented through official High/Scope organisations operating in the U.K., Mexico, Finland, Singapore and the Netherlands. High/Scope materials have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Finnish and Norwegian. The Approach is therefore seen to be relevant across cultures and economic backgrounds - be they international or within one specific country.
• David Weikart died in December 2003 – his work continues.

Further Reading:

• ‘How High/Scope Grew’ Dr David P. Weikart

• ‘High/Scope, the First Thirty Years’ Frank Blackwell