Evidence concerning compensatory education programs (designed to overcome educational deficits associated with adverse environmental circumstances) and their impact was sought in a study that investigated the progress made by students in such programs for reading over a six-year span, from middle school and through high school. Data were obtained from cumulative student records and California Achievement Test scores in reading for 20 developmental and 20 remedial students for the years 1980, 1983, and 1985, and were recorded in terms of raw scores and grade equivalents for total reading, including vocabulary and comprehension scores. Results indicated that after six years of remedial reading classes only one student was above grade level performance, about half of these students were still two years below grade level, and the rest were more than two years below grade level. Grade equivalents indicated that remedial students still made moderate gains between the ninth and eleventh grades, but developmental students made more moderate gains in reading achievement by the end of the ninth grade. The results suggest that compensatory education reading programs are helpful to remedial readers--especially in reading achievement--as compared to the developmental sample. (HOD)