The Des Moines (Iowa) Plan for Student Success provides an academic program for about 6,500 students having difficulty in reading/writing and/or mathematics in K-12. The Plan is a comprehensive kindergarten through grade 12 program with five components: (1) a Kindergarten Enrichment Program; (2) the Reading Recovery Program; (3) the reading/writing laboratory and instruction program; (4) the mathematics laboratory and instruction program; (5) the inservice component; and (6) a parent involvement component. It receives funding from several sources, including Chapter 1. Student growth in reading is evaluated annually with the Silver Burdett-Ginn end-of-level tests. About one-third of participants are on grade level by the end of a year of the Plan. All grade levels showed significant gains between 1991 and 1992. Students in some grade levels are also making more than a year's growth in a year's time in mathematics. Longitudinal studies are being conducted with 2,334 students in reading/writing and 1,993 students in mathematics since the 1987-88 school year. In all areas and levels, at least 30 percent of the students no longer met criteria for the Plan by the spring of 1991. The district plans to extend the Reading Recovery Program to six more schools and to provide alternative delivery systems for the laboratories. The inservice component will be reviewed, and alternatives and options will be developed to minimize classroom absences. Fourteen tables and 14 figures provide information about the study participants. (SLD)