Adopting Innovation in Early Childhood Education: The Child-Parent Center Program.

Arthur J. Reynolds, Wendy T. Miedel, and Emily A. Mann

Abstract

Since 1967, the federally funded Chicago Child-Parent Center Program has served nearly 100,000 children in low-income neighborhoods in the Chicago Public Schools by offering comprehensive educational and family-support services from preschool to third grade. As the oldest extended early intervention in the U. S., the CPC program has proven its effectiveness in enhancing social competence from early childhood to adolescence and in promoting family development. Given the present and future needs of children and families, the CPC program warrants special consideration for adoption by school districts across the country. Several lessons from its 3 decades of implementation are discussed.

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in San Francisco, August, 1998.

Young Children, 55(2), 84-88