Each spring, the New York City Public Schools conduct evaluations of first-graders to determine which students are in need of remedial reading and mathematics programs. A new measure was designed to be more reliable than the multiple-choice, standardized tests used previously. A checklist of 20 items relating to language arts, reading, and mathematics was culled from various instruments and checklists. The format for each item required teachers to evaluate students' behaviors on a four-point scale. Expanded definitions were drafted for all items to help ensure that teachers would have a common understanding of the behaviors being rated. A pilot study was conducted to evaluate the new instrument, using nearly 1,700 first-graders from 14 schools; scores from the standardized Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT) were available for about 1,400 of the students. A moderate correlation was found between checklist and MAT scores. (An appendix provides a copy of the directions given to teachers for completing the checklist with students.) (MDM)