The Instructional Assistant Program, funded by the Ohio Disadvantaged Pupil Program Fund, provides educational support for underachieving pupils by training instructional assistants to provide direct instructional service to selected pupils in the classroom setting. Emphasis was placed on activities which would increase oral and written language and reading skills needed to be successful in school. Teachers involved with the program are assigned an assistant for one-half day and provide direct supervision for the assistant. The assistants attend inservice training sessions and are provided with supplementary materials and instructional activities. Pupil census information indicated that the program served 2,260 kindergartners during the 1992-93 school year for an average of 2.7 hours of instruction per week. The average number of pupils served per teacher was 18.8, and the average number of days pupils were served was 80.4 days. Program objectives, which concerned student awareness of early concepts about print, teachers' perception that the instructional assistants' services improved pupils' reading and language arts, and meaningful training sessions for instructional assistants, were met. Appendices include: early development checklist scoring sheet; classroom teacher survey; general inservice evaluation form; instructional assistant assessment instrument; and a calendar worksheet for computing days of pupil service. (JDD)