In 1980, Kentucky reported the nation's lowest percentage of adults, aged 25 and older, who had graduated from high school. Legislators were inundated with recommendations for reform. The result was the enactment of the Parent and Child Education (PACE) pilot program (1986). In the PACE program, parents without high school diplomas attend classes in public schools 3 days a week with their 3- or 4-year-old children. Breakfast is provided for parents and children; parents then attend adult education classes and children go to preschool classrooms for approximately 3 hours. The adults work on reading, language, social studies, writing, and critical thinking in an adult basic education curriculum designed to prepare them to pass the General Educational Development (GED) test and receive a high school equivalency certificate. The children work on language, math, the ability to portray the world through art and dramatic play, problem solving, and movement, using the curriculum developed by the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation of Ypsilanti, Michigan. Parents and children then work together on activities designed to teach parents how their children learn and how parents can help them learn. After lunch, the children nap while their parents plan and attend programs to train them to be more effective parents, students, and citizens. The PACE program, in which 901 adults and children have participated at 18 sites in 12 counties, has a $900,000 annual budget. Expansion has been recommended. Evaluations have not been completed, but early indicators are promising. Problems include distrust of outside authorities, fear of failure, reluctance to admit lack of education, and the duration of the program, as the children are no longer eligible for the program when the parent has obtained a GED. (Twenty footnotes are included in the article.) (CML)