More than 50 years ago, Craig Ramey, professor and Distinguished Research Scholar at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, began a landmark study to investigate the long-term impacts of early childhood education on children from deeply impoverished, predominantly Black families. The latest findings from the Abecedarian Project, published in the November-December issue of the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology , reveal new insights into how early educational interventions shape school achievement and intelligence -; and how the benefits are not equal in adulthood for boys and girls. Tracking 104 participants from infancy to age 45, Ramey and his team found that while boys and girls initially showed significant gains in IQ and academic skills from the early childhood program, long-term outcomes diverged sharply.
While Black females continued to build on their early gains into middle adulthood, Black males showed diminishing progress over time. "Our interventions gave both boys and girls from disadvantaged families a solid start, but these results point to broader societal factors that may undermine the lasting benefits of early education, particularly for Black boys," said Ramey, who also holds academic appointments in Virginia Tech's departments of psychology, neuroscience, human development, and pediatrics. The promise and limitations of early education The Abecedarian Project was designed in 1971 to test whether high-quality early education could close ac.