Compensatory education: Long-term effects of early parental implication (and III: The C.P.C.)

Abstract

After describing the program of early compensatory education (from age 3 to 9), called Chicago Child-Parent Centers (CPC), this article collects and analyses the evaluation studies of that Program from a longitudinal perspective – Chicago Longitudinal Study (CLS)-, focusing primarily on methodological problems and afterwards on the short and, mainly, long terms effects, until the targeted subjects of the Program reached the age of 24. The studies confirm the Program has lasting educational (higher performance and educational achievements) and social (higher social adjustment) effects. Subsequently, it analyses which elements of the Program can produce these beneficial effects, which are basically its early inception and parent involvement in their children’s education. Finally, it concludes that the Program is highly profitable, based on the educational implications that stem from the study.