A very important part of the Rutland Street project which was developed by the Department of Education in collaboration with the Bernard Van Leer Foundation was to carry out research on its effectiveness in assisting children in developing their cognitive skills and, by so doing, to prepare them for the work of the primary school.
A follow-up study carried out by the Educational Research Centre, Drumcondra, involved comparisons between students who had attended the Rutland Street pre-school — the experimental group in the original study — and a group of students who had not attended the centre — the control group in the initial study — when they were aged 16 to 18 years. The results indicated that the experimental group stayed on longer in school and 10 per cent of them took the leaving certificate examination while none of the control group did. Two students went on to third level education. It also emerged that a greater proportion of girls than boys stayed on at school and sat for State examinations.
As a result of the rehousing programme, much of the population which was resident in the area has now moved and it would be very difficult to trace the students who were involved in the original valuation who would now be 32 years of age. However, other pilot projects are being evaluated and it is intended to conduct longitudinal studies at appropriate stages in the educational lives of the populations involved in those projects to determine the effects of the interventions on the life prospects of the young people involved.
