IT WAS 1962, AND MANY AFRICAN-AMERICAN parents in Ypsilanti, Michigan, didn't see the point of sending their 3-year-old children to a special class at the neighborhood public school rather than just starting them in kindergarten at age 5 or 6. David Weikart, director of special services for this segregated school system in a working-class community near Detroit, had to admit that he didn't really have a convincing argument to overcome their reticence. But he was sure there must be a better way to help at-risk students than simply waiting until they had fallen so far behind their classmates that they were forced to repeat a grade.
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