For a project designed to increase understanding of cultural diversity in the United States as a preliminary to meeting the educational needs of all the country's children, 42 professionals and parents were asked to identify the critical issues in the education of children from minority backgrounds. Over 200 issues were identified in 8 areas: (1) administration and policy; (2) attitudes and bias; (3) training and personnel; (4) curriculum and instruction; (5) assessment; (6) society and community; (7) parents and families; and (8) funding. Selected issues raised by respondents indicated that, among other problems: (1) school organization is not effective in dealing with diversity; (2) the current educational system has a mainstream bias which adversely affects minority students; (3) educators are not receiving appropriate training in this area and teacher educators also lack the needed knowledge and skills; (4) current instruction, curricula, materials/methods and service delivery models are inadequate; (5) inadequate assessment has led to overrepresentation or underrepresentation of minority students in various educational programs; (6) increased collaboration within the community is needed; (7) parental involvement needs to be encouraged and increased; and (8) funding for all schools should be equalized. All the issues identified are listed in the report under the eight categories. Concluding sections offer additional thoughts, a description of the data collection process, a directory of the respondents, and a listing of respondents by the ethnic groups with which they are concerned. Appendixes provide diversity data by state and the forms used in the survey. (24 references) (DB)