This report responds to an Executive Order that charges the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans with improving the education of Hispanic Americans through the study of current educational conditions. The study includes an analysis of the current state of Hispanic American educational attainment and points out the serious work that must be done to promote high quality education for Hispanics. Educational attainment for most Hispanic Americans is in a state of crisis. Most agencies lack adequate planning or accountability procedures to gauge the participation of Hispanic Americans, but it is apparent that the disparity in overall achievement between Hispanic Americans and other Americans is large and not lessening appreciably. Specific factors contribute to this educational disparity. Inadequate school funding persists at local, state, and national levels, and bilingualism is treated as a liability rather than as a rich cultural and economic resource. Many Latino students are segregated into inferior schools. Their lack of representation makes it difficult to address educational inequality, and the changing judicial and legislative climate on issues related to race and ethnicity, including affirmative action and immigration policies, place at risk the progress made during the past 30 years. Recommendations to improve education for Hispanics center on better allocation of resources, the end to segregation in the schools, and multicultural and bilingual educational approaches. Seven appendixes present supplemental information, including the Executive Order that led to the study. (Contains seven figures.) (SLD)