This study attempted to test hypotheses relating to the differential performance of two groups of elementary school children on tests of creative thinking. The two groups tested were from Freedom Schools in Prince Edward County, Va., where public schools had been closed for 5 years, and from schools of Jackson, Mich. The Virginia group consisted of four sub-groups based on age, grade level (1, 4, 6, and 8), and number of years of schooling--either continuous, delayed, or interrupted. The Michigan group was similarly divided, but had had the normal number of years of formal school experience. The criterion measures for creative thinking used were the four tasks of the Minnesota Test of Creative Thinking, and five basic scores were generated: fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration, and total score. In summary, those children who had normal school experience, in terms of numbers of years of continuous schooling, did better on tests of creativity than did those children whose schooling had been delayed or interrupted for varying amounts of time. The differences between the two populations were not large, however, and not significant for the overall population. The one general conclusion warranted was that the evidence indicated that formal schooling had little direct positive effect on creative thinking. (Author/LK)