The purpose of this report is to review sources of information that the Department of Education may want to draw on in its evaluation of the compensatory education program. Focus is placed primarily on information that can be used to describe children in poverty, to assess changes in the size and composition of this population, and to relate poverty or residence in poor neighborhoods to educational disadvantage and performance. The report is comprised of five parts. The introduction summarizes the official definition of poverty, provides a background sketch of the characteristics of poor children, and briefly mentions the main programs of governmental aid to the poor that affect children. Part 2, the bulk of the report, describes a score of databases from the mid-1960s to the 1980s that contain relevant data on children in poverty and the educationally disadvantaged. Part 3 describes a smaller set of regular statistical publications in which data on poverty or welfare programs may be found. Part 4 is an annotated bibliography of some of the major analyses that have been conducted using data sets described in Part 2. The final part is a brief assessment of the available information. (KH)