ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses these implementation issues by attempting to identify some of the more promising as well as less promising pathways for maximizing a child's intelligence. It presents three major findings about alternative strategies for maximizing a child's Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and achievement. First, school policies aimed at disadvantaged children, whether special compensatory programs or extra resources such as smaller class sizes, seem to have limited effects on raising IQ and academic achievement. Second, very early intervention programs such as Early Head Start and other full-time educational childcare programs do appear to raise the IQs of disadvantaged children, and therefore this approach represents a distinct policy option. Finally, whole family policies that aim to restore two-parent families, reduce the number of children bom outside marriage, emphasize the role of fathers, and improve parenting skills may be especially promising because they have the potential to optimize all of the environmental risk factors at once.
