This publication is the first interim report from the Congressionally Mandated Study of Educational Growth and Opportunity (Prospects), and describes students' characteristics and the schools they attend. Prospects is designed to evaluate the short- and long-term consequences of Chapter 1 program participation by following for 5 years large national samples of public school children in three grade cohorts along with their parents, teachers, and principals. Part 1 focuses on students attending schools with high concentrations of poor children. Part 2 focuses on the characteristics of children who receive Chapter 1 services or other state or local compensatory education services. Part 3 describes students' educational environment by looking at the characteristics of the schools, the teachers who work there and their approaches to classroom instruction, the types of programs that were offered, and access to instructional materials. Part 4 includes a description of limited-English proficient students and the types of compensatory services they receive. Appendixes contain information on features of the overall research design, measurement approaches and survey instruments, information on test selection, and a list of work group members and consultants. (JB)