This booklet briefly describes the potentials and problems of different ways of assessing the short-term impact of early childhood Title I (ECT-I) programs. It is intended for education officials and evaluators who already know something of Title I evaluation, but who may not be familiar with the special issues involved in evaluation of early childhood educational programs. Several issues in impact evaluation of educational programs in general are outlined, and the special problems associated with evaluation of ECT-I programs as distinct from Title I programs in later grades are addressed. Chapters III-VI describe four different approaches to evaluating short-term program impact, including the three models proposed by the United States Education Department for evaluating Title I programs in later grades. Chapter VII describes special issues relevant to criterion-referenced assessment of program impact. Chapter VIII discusses the key problems to be faced by anyone wishing to aggregate results of short-term impact evaluations of ECT-I programs across several cases that may or may not use the same approach to assessing impact. Chapter IX provides a summary, conclusions, and guidelines on the appropriateness of different kinds of short-term impact evaluations of early childhood Title I projects under different conditions. (Author/GK)