HighScope is a preschool curriculum developed in the United States from the 1960s onward, best known for its daily plan-do-review sequence, in which children decide what they will do, carry out their plan during a long work time, and then reflect on what happened. It is built on active participatory learning, a consistent daily routine, a room divided into clearly labelled interest areas, supportive adult-child interaction and a structured approach to observing children’s progress.
HighScope is also inseparable from the Perry Preschool Project, one of the most cited studies in early childhood education. For teachers and leaders, the curriculum offers concrete, teachable routines that fit many settings, and the research history offers a lesson in what long-term studies can and cannot prove. This article covers both.
Origins: Ypsilanti, 1962
In 1962 David Weikart, a school psychologist in Ypsilanti, Michigan, began a preschool programme for three- and four-year-old African American children from low-income families who were considered at risk of school failure. The Perry Preschool Project, named after the elementary school where it was based, assigned children either to the programme or to a comparison group, and both groups were followed for decades.
Weikart and his colleagues drew heavily on Jean Piaget’s ideas about children constructing knowledge through action. Over time the programme’s practices were developed into a full curriculum, and in 1970 Weikart founded the HighScope Educational Research Foundation to continue the research and train teachers. The curriculum has since been used in many countries and has been revised repeatedly, with a set of key developmental indicators, a teacher training system and an observation tool.
This dual identity, a classroom curriculum and a research programme, is unusual among early-years approaches. Montessori and Reggio Emilia grew from practice and attracted research later; HighScope grew up alongside its own longitudinal study.
Plan-do-review in practice
The heart of a HighScope day is a sequence that may last an hour or more. During planning time, children meet in a small group with an adult and say, show or draw what they intend to do: build a garage in the block area, paint a picture of the rain, play shop with a friend. Plans start simple with three-year-olds, often just pointing to an area, and grow more detailed as children develop.
During work time, children carry out their plans, change them, or make new ones. Adults move around the room, join play at the children’s level, ask open questions, and observe. They do not run activities; they support the activity the child has chosen.
During recall time, the group meets again and children talk about what they did. This might involve showing a model, acting something out or describing a problem they solved. Recall is where much of the language and reflective thinking happens, and teachers who are new to HighScope often underestimate its value. It is tempting to cut it when time is short; experienced HighScope teachers protect it.
The sequence asks children to hold an intention in mind, act on it and look back on it, which is close to what researchers today describe as executive function. It also gives the day a clear structure that children quickly learn and anticipate.
The other parts of the HighScope day
Plan-do-review is the best-known element, but a full HighScope day contains several other components, each with a purpose.
- Greeting time: a calm start where children and families are welcomed and the day’s plan is shared.
- Small-group time: a teacher introduces materials or an idea to a small group, then children explore in their own way; the adult plans the materials, the children shape what happens with them.
- Large-group time: the whole class sings, moves, plays music or shares a story together, building community.
- Outside time: vigorous physical play, exploration and social play, with adults participating rather than supervising from the edge.
- Transitions and meals: treated as learning times, with children helping and choosing where possible, rather than as dead time between activities.
Consistency matters more than the exact order. HighScope teachers keep the same sequence every day, display it in pictures the children can follow, and give warnings before transitions. Children who know what comes next tend to be calmer and more independent, which frees adults to interact rather than direct.
Setting up interest areas the HighScope way
HighScope classrooms are divided into interest areas, typically including blocks, house or pretend play, art, books and writing, toys and games, sand and water, and often music, woodworking or science areas depending on space. Each area holds plenty of open-ended materials, stored in containers that children can reach, with picture-and-word labels on shelves and containers so that children can find things and put them back on their own.
The labels matter more than they seem. They let children plan independently (I am going to the block area to get the long blocks), they connect objects to written words in a meaningful way, and they make tidy-up a task children can manage without an adult directing each step. In a bilingual room, labels can show both languages, and teachers often notice children starting to recognise the shape of words in each.
Materials are chosen to be diverse and authentic: real kitchen utensils as well as toy ones, fabric and dress-up clothes from local culture, books that reflect children’s families. Areas are arranged with clear boundaries and paths so that a child can see the whole room and choose. When a new material is introduced, it often appears first at small-group time, so children know how it can be used before it joins an area.
Teachers review the areas regularly using their observation notes. If no one has visited the writing area for a week, the question is not what is wrong with the children but what the area is missing.
How HighScope adults talk with children
Shared control. HighScope describes a climate where adults and children share control: children choose much of what they do, and adults set the structure, materials and limits.
Encouragement rather than praise. Instead of general praise, adults describe what a child has done and ask about it: you used three blocks to make the bridge stand, how did you decide? This keeps attention on the child’s thinking rather than adult approval.
Joining play as a partner. Adults get down to the child’s level, follow the child’s lead, and add a gentle challenge when the moment is right, rather than taking over.
Problem-solving approach to conflict. HighScope teaches a six-step process for conflicts between children: approach calmly and stop any hurtful actions, acknowledge feelings, gather information, restate the problem, ask for ideas for solutions and choose one together, then give follow-up support. Many schools that do not use HighScope have adopted this sequence.
Key developmental indicators and observation
HighScope organises what children learn into key developmental indicators, usually shortened to KDIs, grouped into broad content areas: approaches to learning; social and emotional development; physical development and health; language, literacy and communication; mathematics; creative arts; science and technology; and social studies. The KDIs describe the kinds of knowledge and skill children build through everyday experience, such as solving problems in play, building relationships, counting objects or describing what they observe.
Teachers record brief anecdotal notes throughout the day, linked to the indicators, and use them both to plan and to track development over time. HighScope’s own observation instrument, the Child Observation Record, now available as COR Advantage, rates children’s development on levels within each area based on these notes.
This is assessment by observation in everyday activities, not testing. For schools that are committed to observing children without scores, the useful lesson is the discipline of short, frequent, factual notes linked to a clear framework. Any school can borrow that discipline and connect it to its own national or institutional framework, while still never comparing or ranking children against each other.
What the Perry Preschool study shows, and its limits
The Perry Preschool Project followed its participants into adulthood, with major reports at age 27 and age 40, the latter published in 2005 by Lawrence Schweinhart and colleagues. Compared with the control group, adults who had attended the programme showed better outcomes on several measures, including high school completion, earnings and lower involvement in crime. The economist James Heckman and colleagues later analysed the data and argued that the programme produced substantial returns to society, an argument that has been influential in public debate about funding early childhood education.
The study also has well-known limits. It involved only 123 children, all from one community, in a programme with highly qualified staff and home visits, in the 1960s. Effects on IQ faded within a few years, while longer-term life outcomes appeared, which suggests that the benefits came through non-cognitive skills such as persistence and self-regulation rather than intelligence. Researchers continue to debate how far results from such a small, intensive programme can be generalised to large public systems today.
There is also a smaller, more debated study by Schweinhart and Weikart comparing HighScope with a direct-instruction programme and a traditional nursery approach, which reported differences in social outcomes later in life. It is often quoted, but its sample was small, and responsible summaries treat it as suggestive rather than conclusive.
What HighScope offers a blended curriculum
For a school that blends approaches, HighScope’s strongest contributions are practical. Plan-do-review gives a structure in which children’s choices are real but organised, which is helpful in bilingual classrooms where children may need visual supports to express their plans. A child who cannot yet say a full plan in English can point, draw or say it in Vietnamese, and recall time gives adults a chance to model the language in both.
The six-step approach to conflict is easy to teach to a whole team and gives Vietnamese and international teachers a shared script, which reduces the cultural misunderstandings that can arise when adults from different backgrounds handle conflict differently. The habit of brief anecdotal notes supports observation-based assessment, which is central to how the Global Nexus framework documents children’s growth across its six dimensions.
What a blended school should avoid is presenting the Perry study as proof that its own programme will produce similar results. The study tells us that high-quality early education can matter a great deal; it does not tell us that any particular school will achieve the same.
Introducing plan-do-review to a team: a gentle sequence
Teams that adopt plan-do-review without the full curriculum often try to change everything at once and give up after a difficult week. A slower introduction, sketched below as an example rather than a prescription, tends to stick.
- Prepare the room first. Before changing the routine, make sure areas are clear, materials are reachable and shelves are labelled with pictures, so children can actually act on a plan.
- Start with recall, not planning. For the first week, simply gather small groups after free play and ask children to show or tell what they did. Children get used to reflecting before they are asked to plan.
- Add simple planning. Next, ask children before free play where they will go first. Accept pointing, a photo of the area, or a single word in either language.
- Stretch the plans. As children become comfortable, ask what they will use, who they will play with, or what they will make. Write their plans down in their own words.
- Review as a team. After a month, teachers compare notes on which children plan easily, which need more support, and how recall conversations are going, then adjust group sizes and timing.
The key adult skill throughout is restraint. A plan belongs to the child, so adults avoid redirecting it toward something they consider more educational. The learning comes from making a plan, trying it and talking about what happened, not from choosing the plan an adult would have chosen.
Câu hỏi thường gặp
Is HighScope only for children from disadvantaged backgrounds?
No. The original Perry Preschool Project served low-income children, but the curriculum itself is used in many kinds of settings, including private and public preschools, in many countries. Its routines and adult-child interaction strategies are designed for young children generally, not for a particular group.
How long is work time in a HighScope classroom?
Work time is usually the longest single part of the day, often around forty-five minutes to an hour, with planning before and recall after. Exact timing varies with the age of the children and the length of the school day, but the sequence of planning, working and recalling stays the same.
How is HighScope different from Montessori?
Both value active, self-chosen learning, but they organise it differently. Montessori uses a specific set of sequenced materials presented by a trained guide, with individual work cycles. HighScope uses ordinary early-years materials in interest areas and puts more emphasis on planning, reflection, small-group activities and adult partnership in play.
What does the Perry Preschool study prove about early education?
It shows that one high-quality programme in the 1960s was associated with better adult outcomes for its participants compared with a control group. It does not prove that every preschool will have similar effects, and its small sample and specific context mean results should be generalised with care.
Can teachers use the six conflict-resolution steps without the full curriculum?
Yes. Many schools teach the steps as a standalone practice: stop hurtful actions calmly, acknowledge feelings, gather information, restate the problem, ask children for solutions, and follow up. The steps work best when the whole team uses them consistently so that children learn what to expect.
Does HighScope assess children with tests?
No. HighScope relies on observation during everyday activities. Teachers write brief anecdotal notes and use them to rate development on an observation record across broad areas. The purpose is to plan for each child and track growth over time, not to rank children or give them scores.