A first-year report of the South East Education Development (SEED) project, an organization between the community-at-large and the schools in a disadvantaged section of San Francisco, California, is presented. The author first lists major findings about the primarily Negro first-grade students as a group and an introduction which refers to the nature of the competent pragmatic test and the empirical basis for this review. Then separate sections discuss pupil attendance patterns, teacher evaluation of reading, and achievement test results. In general, the students were found to be slightly below grade level but working at a satisfactory pace. Other findings were (1) that no significant differences between boys and girls were manifested in relation to age, attendance, and reading stanine scores; (2) that attendance and reading achievement were significantly related; (3) that class size and monthly reading achievement rates were not significantly related; and (4) that SEED-project first graders performed significantly better than first graders in the same schools the previous year. It was therefore concluded that SEED demonstrated its efficacy in promoting reading growth. Tables are included. (AW)