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This document discusses a project designed to assess trends in service data and the effectiveness of the services provided over a 10-year period. It begins by describing the services provided by the Wilder Foundation Child Guidance Clinic, an outpatient mental health center serving children and families in the Saint Paul, Minnesota area. A number of trends emerged about the families served by the clinic. There was a notable increase in the percentage of families headed by single parents, and in the percentage experiencing chronic economic distress and frequent changes in residence. There were dramatic increases in the aggressive nature of clients, including the frequency of assaultive and threatening behaviors. An examination of service trends indicated a dramatic decline in the amount of services received by clients. The clinic staff attributed this decline to the growth of managed care, a decrease in the amount of group therapy provided by the clinic, and an increase in family mobility. A summary is provided of parental ratings of satisfaction with clinical services. The final topic concerns the challenges faced when designing and carrying out the evaluation of the Child Guidance Clinic and the difficulties encountered in reaching families for a follow-up. (Contains 15 references and 44 figures.) (JDM)

There is abundant theoretical support for the value of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) at the elementary school level, but there has been relatively little research to document its effects. This paper explores the relationship between DAP and student achievement among low-income students in St. Paul, Minnesota, using research from an on-going evaluation of the Head Start-Public School Early Childhood Transition Demonstration Project. The degree of implementation of DAP in kindergarten, first, and second grades, and its relationship to student achievement were studied, and whether there were differential effects on the Hmong student population was investigated. Two clusters of elementary schools, six in all, were studied, with the Demonstration project implemented in one cluster. The preliminary results from this study indicate that there are significant relationships between DAP in the classroom and early student achievement in mathematics and reading. The positive relationships occurred across cultural groups in the sample. Even though the degree of DAP implementation overall was relatively modest, impacts on achievement and teacher attitudes were apparent. (Contains 3 tables and 14 references.) (SLD)