Not all of America's public schools have benefited from recent efforts to improve education, because the problems of schools and of their communities are deep and complex. By 2000, when one of every three pupils in the public schools will be nonwhite, America's major cities could become an educational Third World. To avoid a deepening crisis, Americans must recognize that poverty and malnutrition are connected to student performance. Schools must give top priority to early education, especially to language and, in particular, to the English language. Every school district should organize a primary school unit called the Basic School. The goals of the Basic School would be to assure that every child reads with understanding, writes with clarity, and effectively speaks and listens. Basic School grade levels would be blurred, class size would be small, the school schedule would conform to changing family and work patterns, and the school would offer prekindergarten programs, after-hour workshops, and summer sessions. New enrichment programs financed by parents and the State, called the Extended School, would supplement the Basic School and provide extra services for special and at-risk children. Generally, schools should also broaden their criteria for student potential, while researchers deepen and extend their studies of children's intelligence and how they learn. (RH)