To the Editor: 

For the first nine years of my career as a pediatrician I worked in a Head Start Program in north central Philadelphia schools. As is happening here, providing exemplary preschool experiences for the resource deficient enabled the children, the poorest of the poor, to score at national average or above. My own work showed the neurodevelopmental effects of malnutrition and lead poisoning precluding affected children from succeeding. 

The responsibility of the Board of Education is to continue with the present program and maintain the support needed through to graduation. All will benefit with, worth noting for those concerned, an increase in SAT and ACT score-based rankings. 

Robert J. Karp, Md
Harrison Street

The writer is emeritus professor of pediatrics at SUNY-Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, N.Y.