Educational Forecasting

By Debra Viadero

Cambridge, Mass.

It’s a scenario that sounds like something right out of science fiction.

Picture a busy hospital nursery. As nurses gently lift the newborns from their cribs, scientists attach electrodes to the tiny babies’ heads. As the infants listen to sounds, the electrodes take quick, painless measurements of their brains’ electrical activity.

The results then predict which babies will have trouble learning to read eight years later and which ones...