These essays deal explicitly with the future of the public schools and implicitly with the problem of making responsible predictions. Following an introduction by Herman Kahn, the first two essays deal with the social and social policy context of the schools. B. Bruce-Briggs contrasts alternative long-term and current cultural trends. Jane Newitt, proposing a cyclical theory of social policy, suggests four possible scenarios. The next two essays deal with trends in educational theory and practice. Herbert I. London maintains that innovation will return to vogue (but offers no timetable). Frank E. Armbruster documents the basis of the back-to-basics movement but does not guess its duration. In the following essay, Diane Ravitch defines the ends and means that urban schools can pursue despite contextual problems that will not disappear soon. The next essay, Martin T. Katzman's on demographic trends, opts for a future in which birthrates and mobility patterns will neither accelerate nor reverse in any extreme way. Legislative and judicial intervention in the conduct of schools is dealt with in Mark G. Yudof's essay focusing on the due process rights of students. David K. Cohen, in the last essay, considers schools as bureaucracies in relation to the modern quest for more citizen participation. (Author/JM)