The first part of this document describes the formation of the Education Steering Committee for Basic Skills Coordination by the Education Department, consisting of representatives from six staff offices and "Head Start." The Committee's goals and accomplishments are summarized, including compilation and distribution of a legislative comparison of the laws governing basic skills programs. The author describes the difficulties encountered because of differing definitions for "basic skills." The second part of the document describes the need for coordination of basic skills programs among different levels of government. The author suggests including coordination needs assessment as an integral component of larger needs assessment processes to insure that coordination planning can become built-in to the organizational plan of all new projects. (JEH)