The history and accomplishments of the Arizona Center for Early Childhood Education from its founding in 1966, as a component of the National Laboratory on Early Childhood Education, to its reorganization in 1972, as the Arizona Center for Educational Research and Development, are presented. The Arizona Center originated with a commitment to the systematic analysis, continued development, validation and modification of a new, existing program. The Tucson Early Education Model was a 3-year program on the intellectual development of young Mexican-American children, conducted in response to a high rate of school dropouts. A new educational program was evolved and gradually implemented in 68 classrooms, grades 1-3, in eight Tucson public schools. Four instructional goal areas were emphasized: (1) language development, (2) intellectual base, (3) motivational base, and (4) societal arts and skills. Initial research efforts of the Arizona Center attempted to study the effects of basic learning variables associated with the Tucson Early Education Model, such as modeling and discrimination. These studies later led to a formalized program of research, comprising three basic areas of study: (1) intellectual skills, (2) environmental influences, and (3) instructional methods and techniques. In the area of intellectual skills, sequential memory ability was shown to be influenced by stimuli grouping. In the environmental area, influences of socialization on intellectual performance were investigated. The concluding section, on research-practice interaction, covers curriculum evaluation, open classrooms, parent child training and models for educational decision making. (BF)