School's Influence

Wherever it has been studied, children with high scores on tests of intelligence tend to learn more of what is taught in school than their lower-scoring peers. The correlation Links to an external site. between IQ scores and grades is about 0.50. However, this means that they explain only 25% of the variance. Schooling is one way to increase intelligence. Successful school learning depends on many personal characteristics other than intelligence, such as memory, persistence, interest in school, and willingness to study. The influence of schooling and intelligence combine to help increase later financial security (Ceci and Williams, 1997). The earlier one is exposed to educational material the better prepared he is for school; preschool programs such as Head Start can give children small gains in their school readiness and emotional intelligence Links to an external site. leading to more positive attitudes towards learning (Reynolds et al., 2001).

The Head Start program serves nearly a million children and was founded to help bolster a child's odds of success (Head Start, 2005). According to Datta, which summarized 31 studies, the program showed immediate improvement in the IQ scores of participating children, though nonparticipants narrowed the difference over time. Garces, Thomas, and Currie used data from the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics to review outcomes for close to 4,000 adults followed from childhood. Among European–Americans, adults who had attended Head Start were significantly more likely to complete high school, attend college, and possibly have higher earnings in their early twenties than their nonparticipant siblings. African American adults who had attended Head Start were significantly less likely to be booked or charged for a crime than were their nonparticipant siblings. Head Start may increase the likelihood that African American males graduate from high school. In addition, the authors noted larger effects for younger siblings who attended Head Start after an older sibling.

Psychological factors and preconceived notions about intelligence can be as influential on intelligence as genetic makeup (Dweck, 2006, 2007). Children with early chronic stress showed decreased cognitive function, especially in fluid cognition, or the ability to effectively utilize working memory. The lack of connectivity between the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex can be blamed for this deficiency. In addition to stress, perceptions of intelligence can also play a negative role in cognitive development Links to an external site.. A study at Columbia University found that people with a belief in fixed intelligence showed less improvement on cognitive testing after receiving initial feedback than people with a belief in malleable intelligence. Thus, a variety of psychological factors can inhibit one's propensity to expand his intelligence. It is important to remember that the brain is plastic and increased practice and effort can lead to gains in intelligence (Ericsson et al., 2007).