The purpose of this paper is to provide the background and objectives of an evaluation study of Upward Bound (UB), a nationwide program to help selected low income high school students prepare for and enter post secondary education. The primary aim of the study is to evaluate the accomplishment of two of the program's major objectives, to increase the high school retention rate of its participants, and to increase the rate of entry of participants into institutions of post secondary education. Evaluation of a third major objective of the program, that involving generation of skills and motivation necessary for success in education beyond high schools, is approached tangentially as a secondary aim of the study. Also included as a secondary objective is the investigation of a series of questions which would aid in interpreting the results of the primary objectives. Given these objectives, the study focuses on the 333 regular Upward Bound projects operating in the United States during the 1973-74 program years. To obtain a detailed understanding of the program and to devise alternative preliminary designs, several sources are employed. These, along with the three primary sources of data collected, the timing of collection, the primary purposes of data obtained, and the strategy for data analysis, are summarized. This study serves as an introduction to three subsequent papers which focus on methodology, data collection, data processing, analsysis, and the results of this evaluation. (Author/AM)