This collection of conference papers examines various policy issues significant to the education of California's ethnic minority students. The document supports the view that educational improvements should not be based upon compensatory programs that assume linguistic and cultural deficiencies among students, but rather should look toward changing the school itself. Educational changes based on the role of the institution should consider the following: (1) local development that promotes variety; (2) no vestige of institutional racism or class bias; (3) elimination of the subordinate status of any group; (4) involvement of community, parents and students; (5) intrinsic reward from school experiences; and (6) elimination of a quick, technically developed education. The document also includes critical discussions of the ineffective promotion of minority academic achievement, low median per capita income of minorities, fear of the majority group about loss of power, school holding power with respect to minority students, and the relationship of the school's ineffective education of minority students to society's failure to achieve the structural integration of all its citizens. (JCD)