As a result of declining enrollment and newly instituted limitations on property taxes resulting from passage of Proposition 2 1/2, school districts in Massachusetts have been forced to reduce the size of their teaching staffs. The Massachusetts Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights sought to determine what steps were being taken to maintain racially diverse public school faculties in the face of teacher layoffs. The 10 papers making up this report were presented at a consultation session hosted by the Advisory Committee for the purpose of encouraging communication among organizations and individuals found to be taking action to lessen the impact of teacher reductions. The introduction to the report explains the background situation and notes common themes appearing in several of the papers. The papers themselves discuss legal, financial, and political issues affecting affirmative action policies and layoffs, the impact of layoffs on both school desegregation and minority representation on faculties, the roles of government agencies in preventing discrimination, alternatives to the layoff of minority teachers, and the provision of assistance to laid off staff members seeking new jobs. Conditions and responses to those conditions in the Massachusetts cities of Boston, Cambridge, Worcester, and Framingham are cited. (Author/PGD)