Three national evaluation efforts — Head Start, Follow Through Planned Variation, and Head Start Planned Variation — are reviewed to examine their effectiveness concerning the trainability of intelligence. The development of the 3 projects are placed in historical context, and the results of pre-Head Start intervention studies are summarized. The authors provide specific accounts of the conception of Head Start and the evolution of the concept of planned variation that grew out of Follow Through and continued into Head Start Planned Variation. The evidence on the effectiveness of these projects is highly controversial, but it is concluded that the literature suggests short-term effectiveness. There is also evidence regarding the long-term effects of early intervention, and in this regard two major follow-up studies are reported.
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