The present status of the Elementary and Secondary School Desegregation Study, funded by the United States Commission on Civil Rights and currently underway, was evaluated. The study is designed to investigate the relationship between type and extent of desegre- gation activity and the resultant level of desegregation in the schools. This study is valuable for a number of reasons. First, the existing research literature has not helped our understanding of this particular question. The contractor, Unicon, has made excellent efforts to improve on the data with which it was originally supplied. It has hired a specialist in individual desegregation plans to search court records and Department of Justice records for details of plans. Other data collection efforts should be to consider data from other sources and to conduct a phone survey and follow-up of districts for which available records do not indicate the presence of a plan. By concentrating on how established patterns of student and population movement are altered by intervening plans of different types, the Unicon analytical plans will be able to obtain estimates of policy effects that are reasonably free of the contamination of extraneous factors. Many specific aspects of the analysis have yet to be worked out, but none of them are unusual. The Unicon researchers are experienced, knowledgeable, and skilled. In summary, this is perhaps the most important research activity that the Commission could undertake. (KH)