THE CULTURALLY DISADVANTAGED CHILD, ALTHOUGH VERY VERBAL IN HIS LOCAL ENVIRONMENT, IS USUALLY VERBALLY DEFICIENT WITH RESPECT TO SOCIETY AS A WHOLE. PART OF THE ANSWER TO PROVIDING A MORE EFFECTIVE LANGUAGE EDUCATION TO THE CULTURALLY DEPRIVED YOUTH IS ENRICHMENT OR COMPENSATORY PROGRAMS LIKE HEAD START. TO INVESTIGATE THE EFFECT OF THE AUSTIN HEAD START PROGRAM ON THE LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT AND ABILITY OF PRIMARY GRADE PUPILS, A 15-ITEM ORAL LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT SCALE WAS CREATED TO EVALUATE THE LANGUAGE ABILITY OF 49 HEAD START AND 105 NON-HEAD START DISADVANTAGED PUPILS IN THE FIRST AND SECOND GRADES. THE CHILDREN WERE ASKED QUESTIONS BY A TEACHER, AND THEIR SPONTANEOUS EXPRESSIONS WERE TAPED. THESE TAPED EXPRESSIONS WERE THEN INDEPENDENTLY EVALUATED BY 2 TEACHERS ON THE RATING SCALE, AND THE SCORES WERE RECORDED. THE SCORES WERE DIVIDED INTO 12 GROUPS REFLECTING THE DIFFERENCES IN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PARTICIPATING PUPILS ON 3 DIMENSIONS, NAMELY, (1) HEAD START OR NON-HEAD START, (2) FIRST OR SECOND GRADE, AND (3) HIGH, MIDDLE, OR LOW READING ABILITY. AN EXAMPLE OF A GROUP DENOMINATION WOULD BE "HEAD START FIRST GRADERS OF MIDDLE READING ABILITY." SCORES FOR EACH GROUP WERE OBTAINED IN THE FALL OF 1966 AND AGAIN IN THE SPRING OF 1967. THE DATA SHOWED NO REAL SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE HEAD START AND NON-HEAD START GROUPS OVER THE OTHER 2 DIMENSIONS. A COMPARISON OF THE FALL AND SPRING SCORES SHOWED THAT ONLY MIDDLE ABILITY FIRST GRADE HEAD START PUPILS AND LOW ABILITY FIRST GRADE NON-HEAD START PUPILS MADE CONSIDERABLE IMPROVEMENT IN LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT FROM THE FALL TO SPRING SESSION. THE INCONCLUSIVENESS OF THE RESULTS, A MATTER FOR FUTURE IMPROVEMENT, WAS MOST LIKELY DUE TO THE TYPE OF MEASURING PROCEDURE USED. (WD)