Perry ELC is an Ypsilanti Community Schools pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade building, located off Harriet Street, a few blocks south of downtown Ypsilanti.
Perry is one of the oldest school in the YCS system, having been built in the 1920s, and was the site of the famous Perry Preschool Project in the 1960s.
Contact information
Principal Dr. Connie Thompson
Website: http://www.ycschools.us/our-schools/elementary-school/perry-early-learning-center/
550 Perry St.
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
(734) 221-1700
Fax: (734) 221-1703
History
- 1920s: Built under name "Harriet Street School"
- 1956: Renamed Perry School in honor of Dr. Lawrence C. Perry, a long-time school board member
- 1962-1967: Site of Perry Preschool Project
Perry Preschool Project
Perry was also the eponymous site of the Perry Preschool Project, a panel study conducted by the local HighScope Research Foundation. From 1962-1967, the study investigated the impacts of preschool programming with an intensive participatory education focus on at-risk, low income African-American children, and then tracked those children's well-being over time relative to children from the area who did not attend preschool. The study found that preschool participants scored higher on standardized IQ tests and on standardized performance measures throughout school, were more likely to graduate high school, and, by age 40, were likely to have higher incomes and fewer arrests. As a result of this study, the name "Perry" is known to virtually every early-ed teacher and advocate in the country.
