This paper reports part of a longitudinal study to assess the psycholinguistic abilities of rural children given various educational opportunities. Twenty-two kindergartens were established, each with a teacher and a teacher aide. Prior to the opening of school, the staff was exposed to a six-week intensive training session. An inservice training program stressed personal and professional preparation throughout the year. The kindergarten program was informal but emphasized language development activities. Evaluation was based on the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA) administered to randomly selected samples of 32 no-kindergarten and 31 kindergarten children at the end of five months in their "enriched" first grades in high priority (low economic status) schools. Data processed through both multivariate analysis of variance and analysis of variance revealed that subjects with kindergarten experience scored significantly higher than those without kindergarten on six of the ten subtests. While the need for more carefully controlled research was indicated, early education did appear to be important for this population. (WY)