The Worth of the Follow Through Experience

Abstract

A rather common belief these days is that compensatory-education programs have produced few, if any, positive effects. In this view the evaluation of Follow Through is seen as merely the most recent confirmation of this belief. The results are thought to be meager, the only major finding being that different models of education work differently in different communities (House, Glass, McLean, & Walker,1978). Other analysts of the Follow Through evaluation (Kennedy in press; Stallings,1975; Stebbins, St. Pierre, Anderson, Proper, & Cerva, 1977) argue that the data Support only highly structured educational approaches as effective in teaching basic academic skills, and infer that models that do not focus on these skills appear to be ineffective as judged by the criteria used in the national evaluation. Presumably on the basic of conclusions like these the secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare is reported to have told the President of the United States that the results "are not positive enough to justify continued preferential treatment"(Report on Preschool Education, 1978, p. 2).