Studied was the effect of art education on productive changes in perceptual, cognitive, and attitudinal styles, and on the art aptitudes of disadvantaged youth. The study examined the assumption implicit in many school programs that art education is somehow beneficial to poor and minority group students. The research design divided teachers of seventh-grade art classes into experimental and control groups. Both groups had pre-experiment orientation sessions and an opportunity to develop a "breadth and depth semester plan." Experimental group teachers were given information on the nature of disadvantaged learners and the structure of art as well as an experimental text and certain art materials. The salient finding of the study was that the art teacher, not art per se, is the key to bringing about behavioral changes in disadvantaged students. (NH)