Interest or motivation, intelligence and experience, and psychosocial access are inextricably bound together in successful educational programs, and none can explain or predict performance by itself. In the realm of interest and motivation, it has been found that youth want to learn how to be effective, like to do the things their parents value, and have almost universal interest in science and mathematics because of natural curiosity about the world. Intelligence is defined as what children do with what they know, the interaction of repertoire and capacity. Understanding of the difference between repertoire and capacity clarifies the distinction between intellectual ability and academic performance. The purpose of educational program design should be to facilitate development of repertoire using the child's natural interest in how the world works. Access can take a variety of forms, including exposure to educational and quasi-educational experiences and ability to communicate in the classroom, and expectations about access can strongly influence academic success. Teachers can begin to address the diversity in a classroom and move all students in the same direction with cooperative or group work, and the primary responsibility of the teacher and aide is to focus the student's perception on the task's essential features. In addition, students must learn to take responsibility for learning. (MSE)