The purpose of this program evaluation was to evaluate the first year of an acceleration program that allowed students who were retained a grade level for not performing on academic level in early elementary school an opportunity to rejoin their age appropriate class. The primary focus of the evaluation was to evaluate the effectiveness of an acceleration program on sixth through eighth grade students' attendance, discipline, grades, and standardized test scores in one Louisiana school district located in southwest Louisiana. The seventy-five accelerated participants in the study were the population of students who participated in the acceleration program during the 2011-2012 school year. Data from a matched sample of sixty-five students who were eligible to participate in the acceleration program during the same school year but chose not to accelerate was selected as a control group. The Tylerian Evaluation Approach to program evaluation was used to conduct this program evaluation. Data was gathered from the district's data management system and analyzed in Excel and SPSS. The evaluation found negative short-term outcomes of the acceleration program. Results of this study indicated that accelerated students' attendance rates decreased slightly, their amount of days suspended increased, their grade point average was lower, and they scored lower on standardized test. Students who are accelerated need academic and behavioral assistance to succeed in their accelerated year. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]