The National Follow Through Program is a federally funded initiative to improve the quality of educational services for students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. This report discusses the implementation and outcomes of the program. In the first part of the paper, a history of the program is provided and the diversity of educational approaches in Follow Through's model programs, the gains in basic skills demonstrated by Follow Through students, and the dissemination of Follow Through's model programs are discussed. The second part considers three components of the Follow Through program. These are: (1) a holistic approach to instruction; (2) the development and use of research-based instructional programs and practices; and (3) effective educational delivery systems that stress sponsorship of local projects, staff development, and implementation of parent involvement activities. The third part, a conclusion, finds that the Follow Through program is clearly an important source of knowledge waiting to be tapped, and that its most important message may be that there is a critical need to forge a two-directional exchange, indicating the need for a link between research and schooling practice. Follow through has also identified ways of dealing with the evaluation of school improvement efforts, and corroborated findings in the literature on effective teaching and school effectiveness. A reference list of 62 items is included. An appendix lists overall goals and major design features of some widely implemented Follow Through model programs. (BC)