Bing Nursery School

On a quiet street in Stanford's campus housing area, Bing Nursery School looks like a well-loved neighborhood preschool. It is also a working laboratory. Since 1966 it has been the place where Stanford psychologists study how young children think, talk, feel and grow. Some of the best known experiments in child psychology took place in its game rooms, including the marshmallow studies.

For Palo Alto parents, Bing is also a real enrollment option. It is open to families with no Stanford connection, though Stanford affiliates get priority. This page covers the school's history, its research and how admission works, based on what the school publishes. For other options in town, see our guide to preschools and childcare.

History

Stanford's psychology department ran a laboratory nursery school long before Bing existed. According to the school, it started in 1949 at Stanford Village, a postwar housing complex on the site now occupied by SRI International in Menlo Park. Our page on research labs near Palo Alto covers SRI. In the early 1960s the department added the Escondido Village Nursery School, in a cottage across the street from Bing's present site.

Bing Nursery School opened in 1966. It was built with a National Science Foundation grant and a matching gift from Dr. Peter S. Bing and his mother, Anna Bing Arnold. Robert Sears, then dean of Humanities and Sciences, championed a dedicated lab school for the psychology department. The founding director was Edith Dowley, who had taught at the earlier Stanford Village school.

Dowley worked closely with the architects. She used unit blocks to show them how windows, doors and outdoor spaces should support children's play and movement. Her principles were "treating the child as an honored guest," "the gift of time" and "freedom of movement." Bing still cites them today.

The Tower House next door sat unusable for about two decades after the 1989 earthquake. Gifts from Helen and Peter Bing and the Arrillaga family paid for its renovation. It now hosts programs for parents and educators.

The school today

Bing describes three missions: research, a sound early education for young children and teaching Stanford students through classroom observation. A fourth, the Kordestani Family Programs, was added later for parents and educators.

The program is play based. Classrooms use open-ended materials such as blocks, clay, paint, sand and water. Nursery classes mix children of different ages from about 3 to 5. Children usually stay in the same classroom from year to year. The outdoor space has small hills, sand areas and many trees and shrubs. Willow "thickets," woven on site by the artist Kelly English, give children hideaways in the back classrooms.

Stanford students are part of daily life. Many undergraduates and graduate students take courses that place them in Bing classrooms or run research there. Teaching teams have six teachers. Bing says more than half hold or are working toward a master's degree.

Research at Bing

Bing calls itself a living laboratory and says hundreds of studies have taken place there. Research happens in the school's game rooms. Researchers, known as game room teachers, first get to know the children, then invite them to play. Every project is reviewed by Stanford's human subjects committee and by Bing's research coordinator. Children can say yes or no to each activity. Summaries of current studies are posted in the school's atrium.

The list of researchers who have worked with Bing children reads like a who's who of developmental psychology. Bing's own history names John Flavell, a pioneer of work on metacognition; Eleanor Maccoby and Carol Jacklin on gender differences; Eve Clark on how children learn words; Carol Dweck, known for her work on growth mindset; Jeanne Tsai on culture and emotion; and Michael Frank on language learning.

The marshmallow studies

Bing's most famous research is the delay of gratification work led by psychologist Walter Mischel in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The setup was simple. A preschooler sat with a small treat and was told they could eat it now, or wait about 15 minutes and get two. Researchers then watched how children coped with the wait.

According to published accounts, a 1970 study by Mischel and Ebbe Ebbesen tested 32 Bing children aged about three and a half to almost six. The treats in that early work were animal cookies or pretzel sticks. Marshmallows appeared in a 1972 follow-up, which gave the research its popular name.

The studies became famous because of what came later. Follow-ups in 1988 and 1990 reported that children who had waited longer were described by their parents as more competent teenagers and had higher SAT scores. Those findings turned the "marshmallow test" into a staple of books on self-control.

The story has grown more complicated. A 2018 replication by Tyler Watts, Greg Duncan and Haonan Quan used a much larger and more varied group of children. It found that the link between waiting and later achievement was about half as strong as earlier work suggested and shrank further once family background and early abilities were taken into account. Other researchers have since questioned the test's predictive power. The original studies still matter for what they showed about the strategies young children use to get through a wait, such as looking away or distracting themselves.

How enrollment works

All details below come from Bing's enrollment FAQ. Check it for changes before you apply.

1. Apply early. You can apply any time after birth until your child reaches kindergarten eligibility, meaning they turn five on or before September 1. Applications are accepted year-round.
2. Pay the application fee. The school lists $55 to apply online, or $50 by cash or check if you mail or drop off a paper application at 850 Escondido Road.
3. Take a tour. After your application is processed, Bing emails you to set up an adults-only tour of about an hour and a half. It suggests touring around your child's first birthday. There are no tours in late summer or early fall.
4. Wait in the pool. Applicants join a pool, not a ranked list. Fall placements usually begin in June and summer placements typically begin in March. Bing does not notify families who are not placed for a given term, because a later placement is still possible.
5. Accept a placement. Families cannot choose morning or afternoon. Bing assigns children to classrooms based on each room's needs. If you decline, your child can stay in the pool.

Practical notes for families

Because Bing is part-time, many working families pair it with other care. Our guides to preschools and childcare and things to do with toddlers cover the wider landscape. When your child moves on, our Palo Alto public schools page explains how kindergarten works in PAUSD.

The school sits on Escondido Road in the campus housing area southeast of the main academic core. Drop-off and pickup traffic is concentrated at the start and end of each session. Parking on campus is regulated, so follow Bing's instructions and the posted signs. Our Stanford parking and transit guide covers general rules. Families relocating to the area for a Stanford job sometimes start with a furnished rental. If that is you, browse furnished stays near Stanford while you look for something longer term.

Contact details are on the school's website: phone 650-723-4865 and the address above. Bing's research also connects to a long line of Stanford history. Our history of Stanford covers the university's growth through the 1960s, when Bing opened.

Frequently asked questions