The Effects of a Three Year Inter-Racial Preschool Program on Cognitive and Social Development. (IPSIP).

The Impact of a Preschool Interracial Program (IPSIP) project, funded under Title III of the 1965 Elementary Secondary Education Act, was designed to test the hypothesis that intervening with sufficient impact in the early lives of environmentally deprived children will produce a significant, lasting effect on their cognitive and social development. The IPSIP program involved the comparison of two treatment groups with a control group. Group 1 received a full-time classroom program and the parent education program. Group 2 received only the parent education program, and Group 3 served as a control group for the other groups. Each group contained both economically advantaged and disadvantaged children and similar racial balances. The IPSIP classroom curriculum provided a planned sequence of learning events designed to impact the cognitive, social, and physical motor development of children. The parent education program provided for involving parents in the education of their children. The program provided for instruction in, and practice of behaviors which support learning. Children for the project were located in a changing community in northeastern Cincinnati. Most of the 223 children began the project at age 3 and continued through age 5. (Author/JM)