The effectiveness and deficiencies of judicial intervention in solving the problems of discrimination in the nation's schools are examined in this book. Case studies, surveys, and interviews with lawyers and judges involved in the leading cases are presented in nine chapters by nine contributors, each of whom is a recognized authority in educational or constitutional law, the judiciary, or other pertinent field. Unresolved critical issues of educational litigation of the last decade--racial desegregation, inclusion of bilingual education, education of the disabled, and sex discrimination--are addressed. Court solutions, outcomes, and factors involved are also analyzed. Part 1 consists of an overview of judicial activism in education litigation by Howard I. Kolodner, and part 2 consists of two chapters by Michael A. Rebell examining educational opportunities for children with handicaps. Focus is on special education reforms in New York City and Boston, respectively. Equal educational opportunities for women are discussed in part 3 in a chapter by Rosemary Salomone focusing on the Adams and WEAL litigation. Part 4 examines access and educational opportunities for racial and linguistic minority students, presenting cases from Denver, Chicago, and St. Louis in chapters contributed by James J. Fishman and Lawrence Strauss; D. Bruce La Pierre; and Allen F. Schoenberger. The role of the court is assessed in the fifth part in two chapters, one concerning the views held by judges, by Barbara Flicker, and the other on the views of litigators by Paul L. Trachtenberg. References accompany each chapter. (LMI)