THE PRESCHOOL INVENTORY BEGAN AS AN ANSWER TO THE NEED FOR SOME TYPE OF INSTRUMENT THAT WOULD PROVIDE AN INDICATION OF HOW MUCH A DISADVANTAGED CHILD, PRIOR TO HIS INTRODUCTION TO HEAD START, HAD ACHIEVED IN AREAS REGARDED AS NECESSARY FOUNDATIONS FOR SUBSEQUENT SUCCESS IN SCHOOL. MEASURING BASIC INTELLIGENCE WAS NOT THE GOAL. RATHER, THE…

The Cognitively Oriented Prekindergarten Experience (Project COPE) is a preschool effort to accelerate the development of children from predominantly low-income families. This program was nationally validated as an ESEA Title III project and has received support from the U.S. Office of Education as a National Developer/Demonstrator site. Having…

As a measure of gender identity constancy, The Boy-Girl Identity Task was administered in both Year 1 and Year 2 of the ETS-Head Start Longitudinal Study. The instrument consists of two parallel tasks, each with five items. In Task I, a pricture and name of a girl and presented to the subjects. Items consist of hypothetical changes introduced by…

The long range objective of this bilingual program was to reduce the high dropout rate of Mexican American students. Kindergarten and 1st-grade students were to be instructed in both English and Spanish, and the program was to be expanded one grade level each year. The program was set up to be a voluntary experiment for Mexican Americans, Anglo…

The Children's Auditory Discrimination Inventory (CADI) was used in the longitudinal study to evaluate the child's ability to identify, between two pictures that have been given oral word equivalents, the picture that represents the orally presented stimulus word. The task, which takes 10 minutes, uses 38 cards with two pictures on each and 38…

The Open Field Test was used to assess variables that might not be manifested in a more standard testing situation. In this test, the child was shown 10 standard play objects in the room, and was told to do anything he wished with the toys. The tester initiated no interaction with the child and responded minimally to any overture made by the…

The Johns Hopkins Perceptual Test, a brief measure of intelligence in children, requires the child to choose a form identical to a standard. It consists of 3 practice and 30 test items, all involving black geometric figures printed on white cards. There is one booklet for stimulus cards and one for response cards. The child is presented with a…

An adaptation of a technique devised by Mischel (1958) was used in the longitudinal study to measure delay of gratification. Adaptations involved (1) asking the child to identify the larger of two pieces of candy to facilitate comprehension of the rewards, (2) specifying a standard time limit for receipt of the delayed reward which would be…

The Motor Inhibition Test, which measures "impulse control," requires the child to perform three motor acts. These acts are: walking a distance of six feet on a five-ince wide runway; drawing a line, using ruler and pencil, between two points 8-1/2 inches apart; and winding a toy jeep up to the rear of a toy two truck, a distance of 30…

Data obtained from the administration of the Brown IDS Self-Concept Referents Test as part of the longitudinal study are provided and discussed. The Brown IDS Self-Concept Referents Test is a technique for assessing self-concept which uses a photograph of the young child to induce him to take the role of another toward himself. While looking at…

The Form Reproduction task was included in the longitudinal study test battery to: (1) examine visual-motor performance over time; (2) study processes associated with visual analysis and synthesis and visual-motor integration; and (3) examine its predictive validity for later academic/skill behaviors, e.g., writing. Form Reproduction in Year 1…

The Massad Mimicry Test is an individually administered task for 3-1/2--4-1/2 year-old children. Part I evaluates the child's ability to reproduce phonemes in 30 nonsense words upon hearing each no more than three times from a tape recorded model. Similarly, Part II assesses the child's ability to reproduce meaningful words and phonemes as they…

Developed specifically for the ETS-Head Start Longitudinal Study, the ETS Enumeration I and II Test is designed to measure early numerical ability. Enumeration I tests the ability to itemize each member of a set by using a task that requires neither counting nor reciting the names of numerals. The purpose of the task is to assess the child's…

The ETS Story Sequence task was designed to assess the young child's understanding and use of language in story sequence using receptive and productive skills. The stimulus materials are black and white cartoon-type drawings on cards. Story Sequence I used in Years 1 and 2 of the study consists of two practice items (3 cards each) and two test…

The Matching Familiar Figures Test is a measure of the response style "reflection-impulsivity." The version of the test used in the longitudinal study test battery consists of two practice and 18 test items. On each item, the child is shown one standard and four comparison figures. Figures are simple line drawings done in black on a…