To determine local educators' responses to being targeted for program improvement, questionnaires were sent to principals of all schools identified for Chapter 1 improvement in three states. Approximately 104 (84 percent) of the responding schools supported the legislative provisions for improvement and could focus on the issues of improvement.…

The schoolwide project option of the 1988 Hawkins Stafford Amendments to Chapter 1 allowed a rural school serving a disadvantaged Native American population to restructure its compensatory and regular education services. Santo Domingo school (New Mexico) illustrates the ways modifications of federal law and policy benefit children. (SLD)

An alternative approach to Chapter 1 accountability is proposed that would reward schools for reducing the number of students who fail to meet minimum standards on appropriate tests. Program improvement services would be increased and made available to all Chapter 1 schools. (SLD)

The Chapter 1 supplementary education program is popular with Congress, benefiting from increased appropriations since 1988. The 1988 amendments of the Hawkins Stafford Act improved the program, but further changes may have to take place at the 1993 reauthorization to make Chapter 1 relevant to accelerating educational reform. (SLD)

The interaction between state educational reform and curricular services for special needs students, mainly the economically disadvantaged, is discussed in the context of state and federal compensatory education services. Data from eight schools in California suggest that such services can succeed and that excellence and equity can be compatible.…

Implementation of schoolwide projects in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) illustrates some of the conceptual problems associated with the Hawkins Stafford accountability amendments to the Chapter 1 supplementary education program. Unintended negative consequences are discussed, and recommendations are made to overcome these problems, including the…

The history of federal support of supplementary education for low-achieving children in low-income neighborhoods demonstrates the positive, although not statistically significant, impact of Chapter 1 and the Hawkins Stafford amendments and predecessors. Issues that must be considered in reauthorizing Chapter 1 in 1993 are discussed. (SLD)

Development of state leadership in implementing the quality mandate of Chapter 1 supplementary education programs is traced up to the 1988 Hawkins Stafford Act, which added procedural and accountability requirements. Challenges that states now face in the program improvement processes are described. (SLD)