Begun in the summer of 1953, the New Mexico Developmental Education Project was to: study the social and emotional development of American Indian children in public schools; discover their interests, needs, and abilities using exploratory media; develop a language arts program that would be functional for all children; develop learning experiences that would stimulate critical thinking; explore effective inservice training to aid teachers of children with different language background; determine effective materials that would expedite the learning process; and determine what teacher qualities were desirable for teachers of children with different backgrounds. Conducted in McKinley County, the program involved six small rural schools its first two years and a large new consolidated school its third year. Classrooms were composed of children from Indian, Spanish, and Anglo backgrounds. Teachers learned about their students through achievement, mental maturity, and personality standardized tests, interest inventories, sociometric devices, pupil reactionaries, diaries, open questions, case studies, home visits, informal interviews, and observations. As the program developed, it was shown that Indian children could make rapid progress in the public schools with technical assistance, adequate instructional materials, and trained teachers who had been provided with the necessary resources and an understanding of the child's background. (NQ)