Rediscovering Perry Preschool through Archival Classroom Records and Teacher Interviews

• In Event: Untold Lessons from History: Teacher Interviews and Archival Records from the Perry and Abecedarian Projects

Abstract

Objectives
This paper expands on the policy-shaping Perry Preschool literature with a qualitative analysis of never-published process data, including teacher-authored lesson plans from 1963-1965 and retrospective interviews with Perry educators. We highlight students’ learning experiences through the perspective of the teachers—each of whom earned a degree in early childhood or special education before joining the study—who designed and delivered the landmark preschool and home visiting programs.
Theoretical Framework
Our paper combines deductive content analysis of archival documents with inductive thematic analysis of oral history interview records.
Methods
We situate children’s learning experiences within a modern framework, coding archival records using valid and reliable observational assessments: Class 2nd Edition measures teacher-child interactions related to classroom organization, instructional and emotional support. COR Advantage captures 8 child development areas associated with cognitive, social-emotional, physical, and academic skills. Patterns that emerge from teacher interviews provide context for our content analysis.
Data Sources
We analyzed 312 Perry Preschool records from 1963–1965 authored by 7 of 10 teachers and covering 3 of 4 treatment waves, including small group and area lesson plans, field trip summaries, and teacher-observed dialogues. These materials, preserved and organized by former-Perry teacher Louise Derman-Sparks, are maintained at University of Chicago. Oral history interviews (conducted 2014–2018) with 5 former Perry teachers provide insights into their training, teaching practices, relationships with students/families, and how the program evolved over time. All interviewees had extensive careers in ECE leadership or teaching roles.
Results
Lesson plans for 2-weeks of ‘Area Time’ (1 hour of the 2.5 hour program) document: ‘Purposes’ and ‘Pre-Planned Activities’, with an ‘Evaluation of the Two Week Period’ and ‘Brief Description of Additional Activities Not Pre-Planned’ to be completed at a later date. Daily plans for ‘Small Group’ activities (15-20 minutes) document: ‘Date’, ‘Teacher’, ‘Unit’, ‘Purpose’, ‘Activity’, and ‘Evaluation’.
A randomly selected small group lesson plan contains 480 words; While some plans were brief, most are impressively detailed. An overwhelming majority of lesson plans include teacher reflections on children’s growing skills and interest in activities, as well as dialogue with teachers and peers.
Preliminary results suggest that Perry’s small group lessons were most frequently designed to extend children’s developing language and verbal communications. Scaffolding, language modeling, and concept development were routine instructional strategies.
Field Trips were a significant feature of Perry: Teachers organized 72 outings over 2 academic years, relying on these excursions to promote children’s knowledge of their community and nature, observation/classification skills, social-emotional learning, language/communication, physical development, and career readiness.
Significance
Interviews with Perry teachers, along with archival classroom documentation, provide compelling evidence in support of ECE policies that emphasize whole-child, active learning experiences, well-trained educators, and low teacher-child ratios within high-quality programs.

Authors

• Sylvi Kuperman, University of Chicago

• Tomoko Wakabayashi, Oakland University