Under the auspices of the New York Board of Education and funded through the Office of Economic Opportunity, 20 Edison Responsive Environment (ERE) machines ("Talking Typewriters") were acquired, and a research and demonstration project for disadvantaged students of a major metropolitan area was developed. A total of 238 primary and secondary school children attended the REP center daily for a nine-month period, and a group of functionally illiterate adults completed an evening program on a voluntary basis. Multivariate analyses of pre- and post-program achievement measures indicated striking but inconsistent results. Significant differences on an alphabet recognition test for pre-school and kindergarten children and three verbal ability tests for first graders favored REP participants in comparison with control groups. However, no significant differences on the three verbal ability tests were obtained at the second-grade level. Secondary school participants evidenced greater reading comprehension gains than control students with no differences discernible on a word knowledge measure. The demonstrated efficacy of the program on verbal ability growth and the motivational improvements observed were considered validation of responsive environment concepts. (SS)