A RANDOM SAMPLE OF 55 EDUCABLE MENTALLY RETARDED STUDENTS WAS SELECTED FROM THOSE IDENTIFIED ON THE BASIS OF INTELLIGENCE TEST SCORES, ACHIEVEMENT TEST SCORES, SCHOLASTIC GRADES, AND TEACHER'S APPRAISAL. THIS SAMPLE WAS STUDIED TO -- (1) DETERMINE THE NATURE OF A SERIES OF SELECTED PREDICTOR VARIABLES AS THEY RELATE TO THE SUCCESS OF MENTALLY RETARDED YOUTH IN WORK-EXPERIENCE PROGRAMS, AND (2) IDENTIFY EFFECTIVE COMBINATIONS OF THESE PREDICTOR VARIABLES. VARIABLES WERE AGE, SEX, READING ACHIEVEMENT, ARITHMETIC ACHIEVEMENT, WECHSLER ADULT INTELLIGENCE SCALE (WAIS) VERBAL, WAIS PERFORMANCE, WAIS FULL SCALE, TAPPING TEST, STEADINESS TEST, PERCEPTUAL MOTOR SURVEY, BEHAVIORAL RATING SCALE, ADJECTIVE CHECKLIST, PICTURE ARRANGEMENT LIST, TEACHER PROGNOSIS, AND TEACHER PERSONALITY RATING. THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE WAS SUCCESS ON THE JOB AS RATED BY FOUR CERTIFIED COOPERATIVE COORDINATORS. IT WAS RELATED TO EACH AND TO VARYING COMBINATIONS OF THE PREDICTOR VARIABLES BY MEANS OF A MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS. ONLY FIVE OF THE 15 PREDICTOR VARIABLES WERE FOUND CAPABLE OF MAKING STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT (.05 LEVEL) CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PREDICTION OF SUCCESS IN THE PROGRAM -- (1) THE ADJECTIVE CHECKLIST, (2) PICTURE ARRANGEMENT TEST, (3) WAIS PERFORMANCE IQ, (4) STANFORD ARITHMETIC ACHIEVEMENT TEST, AND (5) STEADINESS TEST. THE ADJECTIVE CHECKLIST ESTABLISHMENT AND OPERATION OF THE WORK-STUDY PROGRAM. CRITERION TO INDEPENDENTLY BE OF PRACTICAL SIGNIFICANCE IN PREDICTING SUCCESS IN THE WORK-STUDY PROGRAM. THE STUDY REPRESENTS AN EARLY AND TENTATIVE STEP TOWARD THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE "TRUE" RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELECTED PREDICTION MEASURES AND SUCCESS IN A PARTICULAR TYPE OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION. PART I DESCRIBES THE ESTABLISHMENT AND OPERATION OF THE WORK-STUDY PROGRAMS (VT 000 839). (EM)