This document, the first of three reports to be produced as part of the National Assessment of Chapter 1 programs, summarizes a wide range of information about those whom the programs are intended to benefit. The report provides an analytic and demographic framework from which to view the actual operations of local Chapter 1 programs. The first section provides an overview of the report. Chapter 2 examines a number of aspects of the relationship between poverty and achievement. Chapter 3 describes characteristics of children whose families meet the official census definition of poverty, as well as those who experience long spells of poverty, those who live in areas with high concentrations of poverty, and students who are not high achievers in school. Chapter 4 examines characteristics of those students who actually have been served by Title I or Chapter 1 programs. Appendices include: (1) the statute for the National Assessment of Chapter 1; (2) a list of contracted studies on Chapter 1; (3) the Administrative Status Report of the National Assessment; (4) two reports on the effects of poverty on student attainment; (5) two statistical reports based on the Current Population Survey and the 1980 Census; and (6) three reports providing data on participants in Title I/Chapter 1 programs. (MW)