The design of the study of sustaining effects is quite complex and this report consists of a description of its five substudies. They are: (1) longitudinal study-will follow a large number of students who are being exposed to a variety of compensatory programs and will determine their educational effectiveness; (2) innovative programs study-will study students involved in this sample who will take the same tests as those in the longitudinal study and will collect information on programs school climate, and principal and teacher characteristics; (3) cost-effectiveness study-will collect resource and cost information on the various compensatory programs for both the regular school year and for summer programs; (4) participation study-will attempt to determine the correlation between economic and educational disadvantagement by conducting a 15,000 household survey of parents with children in the sample focusing on the economic environment in the home, the parents' attitude towards the childs' education, and the parents involvement with the school; and, (5) successful program strategies study-will visit each site identified as a successful program and gather materials for a detailed description of the program for dissemination. Eight major policy questions that the major study will provide answers to are included. (Author/AM)