The major purpose of this study was to assess the behavioral impact of the American Dental Association's (ADA) Teaching and Learning Program, Level 2. A second purpose was to determine the reliability of the Navy Plaque Index (NPI) when administered to a relatively large sample of elementary school students. The NPI, which has demonstrated validity and reliability over a seven-year period of use when utilized by one dentist on small samples of adults, was used for assessment purposes. It was administered by dentists to 16 randomly selected fifth grade elementary classes in a Midwest community. A pretest and posttest design, with experimental and control groups, was utilized in the study. The Navy Plaque Test was shown to be an unreliable measure of plaque indices in this case. Due to the unreliability of the instrument, the behavioral aspect of the ADA's program could not be evaluated. The investigators are presently in the process of conducting a post-post NPI measurement of the same subjects rerandomizing the dentists in order to distribute the variability of the plaque measures among the various treatment groups. This will provide an opportunity to determine (1) any experimental effects that might have resulted from the program and (2) which effects remain six months after the students were exposed to it. By using a measure of dental health status, this program could make an important contribution to the validation and evaluation of classroom health education experiences. (Author/BD)