In the 1980s, the Border Early Learning Center (BELC) was established to provide support and training for preschools and communities in South Africa. This report describes the rationale and process of an evaluation of preschools associated with the BELC. (The data and conclusions of the evaluation are not included in this report.) A questionnaire was designed and translated into Xhosa, and was then completed by BELC trainers and preschool teachers. Later, evaluators made field visits to the preschools. In these visits, an ethnographic approach to observation was used. This approach allowed the observers to be informed by the total environment, rather than merely by the answers to questions they posed from their own conceptual frameworks. Conflicts between educational ideals and reality were evident in large student-teacher ratios, and in ambivalence between school and community ideals. The evaluation was carried out in the context of BELC's motivation to provide the best possible education for the maximum number of children. The key variable for survival of a school was the quality of the teacher. The preschool evaluation form is appended. (BC)