Why does the United States lag behind so many other countries on international education assessments? The traditional view targets school-based explanations--U.S. schools attract poorer teachers and lack the proper incentives. But the U.S. educational system may also serve children with comparatively greater academic challenges as a result of…

This paper reports on a longitudinal study of significant influences on the cognitive readiness of a group of children, aged 60 to 66 months. All measures were obtained by prospective study, which began with Apgar scores calculated in the delivery room. Subsequent measures were gathered by individual case studies in homes, with children and…