This volume is the first of a series reporting evaluation findings on the impact of Project Developmental Continuity (PDC) on institutions, classroom staff, parents and children from the time the children entered Head Start through the first grade. PDC was begun in 1974 with the purpose of ensuring that disadvantaged children receive continuous individualized attention as they progress from Head Start through the early primary grades. Implemented at 15 sites, distributed across Department of Health, Education, and Welfare regional offices and the Indian and Migrant Program Division, PDC emphasizes the involvement of administrators, classroom staff and parents in formulating educational goals and developing a comprehensive curriculum. This volume is intended as an introduction to the PDC program and to the purpose, methods and guiding framework of the longitudinal evaluation. In Chapter I, a brief history of the PDC program and its evaluation are presented, the overall design of the longitudinal study is described and data available as of the spring of the test-cohort children's first grade year (1979) are reviewed. In Chapter II, the conceptual framework guiding the study of PDC processes and effects is recounted. The data collection and analysis procedures used are described in Chapter III. A brief summary is presented in Chapter IV. An appendix delineating PDC variables, data sources and hypotheses is included. The actual impact findings as of Spring 1979 are reviewed in the five other volumes of the series (Volumes II-VI). (Author/RH)