The purpose of this report is to draw on the American experience as a guide to policies, research, and experimentation in other countries who belong to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. This review of compensatory education in the United States tries to give some impression of the changing social conditions that were related to such a movement, of the variety of ideas and theories that lay behind the development of particular educational approaches, and of the range of programmes and projects that has been set up. The projects described represent only a small fraction of the schemes tried out, but they are in general either those that are most well known, or those which have embodied innovation of particular interest. We distinguished three broad strategies of change. We looked first at changes within the school, particularly the development of new curricula, and the extension of formal schooling to include younger age groups. Secondly, we examined change in the relationship between the school and its setting; and thirdly, we outlined projects that had adopted a very different conception of the relationship between school and community than that traditionally held. The aim of this type of programme was to integrate schools racially or socially where the communities themselves were not integrated. Within these three broad strategies, we have traced the developing pattern of ideas. (Author/JM)