In a study of cognitive therapy as a strategy for compensatory education, fourteen low-achieving first graders in the Holly Springs Separate School District (Mississippi) were assigned to treatment conditions consisting of a teacher trained in cognitive therapy, an aide, and a small class size. The therapy relied upon a clinical tutorial model involving identification of cognitive skill deficiencies and tutoring to eliminate the deficiencies in stepwise, hierarchical order. For grade two, the subjects were assigned to a teacher who was untrained in cognitive therapy, and the trained aide from the first year. In the third year, the experimental subjects were assigned to a regular classroom with a larger class size, while the control group during the first two years was exposed to the experimental conditions of cognitive therapy and a small class size. Achievement testing at the end of the study indicated that experimental subjects showed greater gains than controls after first grade, and continued to outperform the control group during second grade, even with minimum cognitive therapy input. Achievement differences in the third year (when experimental and control groups were switched) were not readily observable. The research demonstrated the importance of teacher training in using cognitive therapy as a compensatory education approach. (MJL)