Two researchers, using data from the U.S. census, suggest that people who watched Sesame Street in their formative years may have performed better in school because of it. The research found indications that children who were potentially exposed to the show in their early childhood were better equipped to keep up with their classmates. The study was conducted by Melissa Kearney, an economics professor at, Jim Henson’s alma mater, The University of Maryland and Phillip Levine, an economics professor at Wellesley College. The study was published in June through The National Bureau of Economic Research. Read the complete study here.

Created by Jim Henson, Sesame Street was the first show of that time designed specifically to act as an extracurricular educational tool for young children. The two researchers looked at children who would have been in preschool when the television show began in 1969, then tracked the grades they were in by 1980.

“The question we were trying to ask was whether the introduction of Sesame Street in 1969 had any lasting impact on children who were eligible to watch it when it first started,” Levine said.

Due to the physical limitations of television broadcasting at the time when Sesame Street started, only about two-thirds of the United States had access to the show. This allowed the researchers to easily compare children who had access to the show to the children who did not. The data showed that in the early days of Sesame Street, children who could watch the show were better prepared when they got to elementary school.

The effect was shown to be especially pronounced for boys, African-American children and children living in more economically disadvantaged areas. According to the study, moving from an area with weak reception of the show to one with strong reception reduced a child’s likelihood of falling behind in school by an average of 14 percent.

“We were able to find evidence of an impact on educational outcomes,” Levine said. “Educational development improved. Children were more likely to progress through the education system age-appropriately and less likely to be left behind a grade.”

Studies have shown that a great deal of learning takes place from birth to age five in the time before a child enters the structured environment of school. Research on early brain development has demonstrated the need for high-quality early childhood experiences. From its beginning, Sesame Street has filled that need by exposing these preschool children to vocabulary and diversity, subjects found to improve overall learning.

“Sesame Street was the largest early-childhood intervention tool the United States has ever had. Millions of children watched it every year. And while this research doesn’t prove that Sesame Street is the best way to intervene in education, the study could have implications for other methods of improving learning,” Levine said.

“We see that delivering this kind of electronic content can have beneficial effects in terms of school preparation and academic preparation,” added Kearney. “This study suggests there is potentially this low-cost, easily accessed method of doing that.”