Child Parent Centers (CPC) have been established in selected disadvantaged areas to provide systematic educational experiences for preschool children as young as three years of age. This study provides an update on the current state of the CPC and its latest adaption, the Child Parent Expansion (CPX) Program. A three-year, longitudinal evaluation was designed. This paper reports on the first year of the evaluation, and involves the comparison of five and eight-year-olds, to controls on measures of reading and mathematics achievement, locus of control, parent interview-based measures of home educational environment, school attendance, number of siblings, and birth order. The major findings concern the effects on achievement of the CPC treatment as compared to the regular school experience for the two age groups. Short-and long-term effects of participation on the quality of home environment are shown, and home environment was found to be significantly related to achievement. Implications are drawn concerning CPC program development and program policy, as well as the conduct of evaluation studies. (Author/GSK)