The Summer Youth Employment Program was designed to give at-risk youth educational opportunities and work experience during the summer. This paper gives an overview of the Program's operation in Pima County (Arizona). Test results are presented for 1,975 youth in the summer of 1996 and for 1,178 youths in 1997. Student progress was evaluated with the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE). For 1996, the identical TABE was administered to youth in May, before the program began, as a pretest, and in July, at the end of the program, as a posttest. Alternate forms of the TABE were given as pretests and posttests in 1997. Test scores were Grade Equivalent scores. Results show the following: that the youth made significant improvements in reading in most grades in the summers of 1996 and 1997; dropouts and non-dropouts generally showed gains in reading, math, and language for both summer programs; the gains in reading in 1996 were not significantly different from the gains in 1997; the gains in math and language were greater in 1996 than in 1997. It is recommended for future programs that alternative forms of the TABE be used rather than the same test as a pretest and posttest, and that the alternative forms be changed each summer. This way, youth would not become familiar with the test. (Contains 12 tables.) (EMK)