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A research design is described for the situation in which a program, particularly a compensatory education program funded by Chapter 1 of the Hawkins Stafford Act of 1988, can be evaluated when there is no available comparison group and no pretest data. The design requires content specialists to identify which objectives on the posttest were included in the compensatory curriculum (C objectives) and which were included only in the regular curriculum (R objectives). Compensatory students should perform better on the C objectives to which they were exposed in both regular and compensatory curricula than on the R objectives. The analysis would be a simple t-test of the differences between two groups, the C items and the R items. The design is valuable because: (1) students serve as their own control group; (2) it is not necessary to identify a test that can measure pretest and posttest knowledge; and (3) it allows for identification of successful components of the Chapter 1 program. Two exhibits illustrate sample designs. Five figures and two tables present the analysis method and results from a 20-item test for 47 students in grades 1, 2, and 3 in 1987-88 and 34 students in 1988-89. An eight-item list of references is included. (SLD)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert