This report describes disadvantaged urban eighth-grade students. All statistical data were drawn from the student, parent, and school files of the base year of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88). The following findings are summarized: (1) rural schools contain the greatest proportion of disadvantaged eighth-graders, but urban schools contain the highest concentration of such students; (2) one-third of poor urban students live only with their mothers; (3) 43 percent of the parents of urban disadvantaged students have not completed high school; (4) African Americans and Hispanic Americans together constitute 68 percent of urban disadvantaged students compared to non-Hispanic Whites, who make up only 23 percent of such students; (5) 28 percent of poor urban students come from homes in which English is not the dominant language or is not spoken at all; (6) 93 percent of urban disadvantaged students attend public schools, compared to 56 percent of urban students in the top socioeconomic quartile; and (7) 80 percent of urban disadvantaged students scored in the bottom half of standardized tests for reading and mathematics. Statistical data are presented in 8 tables, 10 graphs, and 1 map. A glossary is included. A seven-item annotated bibliography is appended. (FMW)