Across the U.S. many students are falling short on achieving their academic potential. Furthermore, under-achievement is not evenly distributed. Students from lower-income, black and Hispanic families score lower on mathematics and reading scores in Grade 8, have lower rates of high school completion and lower postsecondary enrolment than students from white and higher-income families. There are many approaches to try to ensure high school students achieve their full potential through academic engagement. However, few are evaluated and among those that are, reports often focus on intended effects. Often such strategies can have overlooked consequences for students’ academic engagement and outcomes. This panel considers three such approaches that have intuitive appeal and policy support: mandatory classroom-based support for reading; targeted elective classes that provide specific instruction and tutoring in “learning how to learn”; and guarantees of postsecondary admission for high achievers. The papers report on the implementation of each approach and the consequences for the affected students’ educational outcomes. Rigorous methods are used to assess (a) whether the approaches yield improved outcomes that align with their objectives, and (b) whether such approaches lead to unintended consequences, out of line with the objectives of raising achievement. The first paper reports on a Canadian experiment that tests the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program, designed to help underachieving students with high academic potential prepare for entrance to colleges and universities. The program operates in 4,800 US high schools and has traditionally placed previously underachieving students (who are primarily from low income and ethnic or linguistic minority backgrounds) in the same college preparation academic program as high-achieving students and in an elective course that focuses on reading, writing, inquiry, and collaboration as methodologies to accelerate student progress. The second paper assesses the impact of the Secondary Reading Initiative in Houston whereby all low-achieving, early middle and high school students were required to enroll in reading remediation courses in place of their electives. The third paper considers the effects of Texas’ Top Ten Percent Plan (TTTP) in which students who graduate with a GPA in the top ten percent of their high school class receive automatic admission to any public college or university in the state. The plan relies for its effectiveness on high racial and socioeconomic stratification between high schools yielding increased postsecondary admissions among students who would not normally receive admission. All three approaches hold the promise of raising student academic achievement and thereby prolonging the educational engagement of disadvantaged groups, but also open the door to unintended consequences. In the first two papers, students can be diverted out of other electives and thus leave potentially effective educational pathways. In all three papers, the groups of students receiving the treatment may not always align with the key target group for policy intervention. The panel thus provides lessons for effective future education policy design and implementation.