Middle Start: An Experiment in the Educational Enrichment of Young Adolescents

This 1977 book reports on an experimental program that was designed to discover whether a summer of intensive academic work and recreation on a college campus could significantly improve the educational performance of economically disadvantaged thirteen-year-old children. For three successive summers, sixty-five experimental participants and sixty-five control participants were selected randomly from schools in two large cities and three small cities. Experimental and control pairs were carefully matched. The results of this program were assessed in terms of six indicators: persistence in school, junior high school grades, senior high school grades, achievement test scores, assignment to a special school track, and attendance at academic or other special schools. On all six measures the performance of experimental pupils was judged superior to that of their matched control partners. The results of Middle Start indicate that even in the middle years of schooling, inner-city children can be helped significantly by skilful educational intervention.