The 1976 Annual Report to the President and the Congress of the National Advisory Council on the Education of Disadvantaged Children (NACEDC) focused its attention on early childhood education, studying alternatives in terms of cost effectiveness, program effectiveness, consolidation and a delivery mechanism designed to meet the needs of the beneficiaries. The Council reviewed plans for studies on compensatory education conducted by the National Institute of Education. Among the recommendations of the NACEDC are that: programs serving the educational needs of children be designed to minimize the need for Federal regulations; a single standard of poverty be established for all Federal programs; in-kind benefits received by those families in poverty be counted as income for the purposes of eligibility for poverty-based Federal programs; and, that longitudinal studies of Elementary Secondary Education Act Title I and other Federal education programs be considered routine and essential. NACEDC is convinced that Title I has been a vital force in increasing sensitivity to the individual needs of students. (Author/JM)