The Children's Art Carnival (CAC) is an intensive holistic reading and reading-oriented arts program for Chapter 1-eligible students who have scored below the cut-off point on a standardized reading test or have performed poorly in the classroom. This report presents the findings of evaluations of the 1990-91 and 1991-92 programs by the Office of Research, Evaluation, and Assessment. The evaluation study identified a number of factors that are crucial to program success and that were evident in the 2 program years studied. It was discovered that themes continued to be an effective way of coordinating the efforts of classroom teachers and CAC staff, particularly at sites which had been participating in the program for a period of time. In addition, use of multisensory approaches means that children who are not successful in one modality have the chance for success in another, and that mastering simple, concrete skills motivates and enables lower-achieving students to generalize from these experiences. A need was expressed by all CAC and school staff members for additional training in coordination and reinforcement of theme-based curriculum. Holistically scored writing samples indicated that the students as a whole had made gains in this area, and a substantial number of students also increased their reading scores. Appendices provide various study documents and assessment instruments. (GLR)