ABSTRACT
Probably the most famous (or, perhaps, infamous) single statement ever made about attempts to remediate apparent deficiencies in mental abilities and scholastic achievements was Jensen's (1969) statement that “compensatory education has been tried and it apparently has failed” (p. 2). According to Jensen, the logic underlying many compensatory education programs has been that:
since the IQ is known to predict scholastic performance better han any other single measurable attribute of the child, it is believed, whether rightly or wrongly, that if the child's IQ can be appreciably raised, academic achievement by and large will take care of itself, given normal motivation and standard instruction. Children with average or above-average IQs generally do well in school without much special attention. So the remedy deemed logical for children who would do poorly in school is to boost their IQs up to where they can perform like the majority—in short to make them all at least average children, (p. 5)
