School readiness problems of disadvantaged children include: the failure of preschool and parent training programs; restricted learning environments and motivational problems; mothers with low intelligence and verbal skills; and a need for comprehensive family rehabilitation. The school psychologist's role in early screening and in fostering…

Reviews the current theories concerning individual differences in cognitive functioning. While some argue that heredity places a genetic cap on intellectual development, others emphasize the dynamic interrelationship between cultural and environmental factors. Concludes that intelligence is more complex than the heredity advocates allow. (MJP)

Scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) Verbal, Performance, and Full Scales were compared for 26 adolescents with educable mental handicaps. The WAIS-R, while strongly correlated with the WISC-R, provided higher scores on all three scales. Several WISC-R…

Suggests that Dunn's genetic explanation for low Hispanic academic achievement is flawed, racist, and scientifically unfounded. Reviews historical efforts to suppress foreign language use and instruction in the United States. Calls for a reexamination of the implications of IQ test results in light of socioeconomic and cultural differences.…

Reviews criticism of Dunn's monograph on Hispanic-Anglo differences in IQ scores. Discusses the heritability and malleability of IQ, the reciprocal relationship between achievement and intelligence, negative effects of schooling for some caste-like minorities, and superior cognitive skills among balanced bilingual students. Contains 19 references.…

The Infant Health and Development Program was an eight-site randomized controlled trial of comprehensive early intervention for low birthweight, premature infants from birth to age three. Higher mental development and IQ were associated with high levels of intervention participation at 24 and 36 (but not 12) months. A dose-response relation…

Claims that the Carolina Abecedarian Project, an early intervention with children from economically and socially impoverished homes, has produced and maintained higher IQs in children at risk of mental retardation are examined for approximately 112 children. Assertions of project success are reviewed, and the implications are discussed. (SLD)

This study followed up on 19 children (ages 9-19) with autism who had received a very intensive behavioral preschool intervention. Results showed that the experimental group preserved their gains in regular class placement, in intelligence quotient, and in adaptive behavior. (JDD)

Data from the Colorado Adoption Project for 493 first-grade adopted and nonadopted children are used to separate parental intelligence quotient (IQ) from the effects of school environment. Several of the variables show direct environmental associations with reading and mathematics achievement independent of effects of parental IQ. (SLD)

Review of the research about outcomes in adult life for more able individuals within the autistic spectrum focuses on cognitive, linguistic, academic, and adaptive functioning; educational and employment history; independence and social relationships; and behavioral and psychiatric problems. The stability of IQ and other measures over time, and…

Reviews competing explanations for disproportionate rates of school failure among poor, minority students, advancing a culture-centered framework that locates the problem in the complex interaction between nonmainstream students and mainstream schools. Chronic school-based inequalities exacerbate existing differences between poor and middle class…

Project Head Start was created during the heady, idealistic days of the mid-1960s. The idea for Head Start, a preschool program for disadvantaged children, emerged from the observation that, on average, poor and minority children arrive at school already behind their peers in the intellectual skills and abilities required for academic achievement.…

Parents are increasingly expected to supplement their children's school-based learning by providing support for children's homework. However, parents' capacities to provide such support may vary and may be limited by the experience of depression. This may have implications for child development. In the course of a prospective, longitudinal study…

"Brown v. Board of Education" only presumed to eliminate the "de jure" apartheid that existed in 1954. It was never intended to resolve the "de facto" gap in minority achievement that still faces education policymakers today. Sociologist David J. Armor goes beyond "Brown" to identify a set of definite risk…

Background: There has been ongoing interest in the role of intelligence in longer-term educational and occupational achievement and social adjustment. The aims of this study were to examine the extent to which IQ in middle childhood (8-9 years) was prognostic of future outcomes when due allowance was made for confounding personal and social…