The long-term effectiveness of the North Carolina Basic Education Summer School Program (BEP) was examined. North Carolina has instituted a testing and summer remediation program for academically at-risk students at grades 3, 6, and 8. The BEP sample was obtained by a stratified random sampling of schools in North Carolina. Results were categorized according to sample attrition, representatives and equivalency of study groups, summer school attendance, and inferential statistics. Research evidence suggests that summer losses in achievement for lower socioeconomic status children deepens the gap between these students and their higher socioeconomic status peers. For compensatory education students, gains made in remediation programs during the regular school year seem not to be sustained over the summer months and into the next year. Appended are four references. (SI)