In 1985 the Urban League of Rochester organized an Education Initiative and held a series of Speak Out Forums and conferences for students, parents, educators, and the community to arrive at an answer to the question: What can be done to improve the academic performance of Rochester's students? This document contains the following papers pertinent to those forums, conferences, and related meetings; (1) a description and timetable of activities from January 1985 to July 1986; (2) lists of involved organizations; (3) summaries of problems brought up by students at Speak Out, and suggested solutions; (4) public relations releases and letters about the initiative; (5) meeting and conference agendas; (6) report of the Community Task Force on Education, summarizing results of the 1985 Education Initiative meetings and stating problems and recommendations for change; (7) report of the Chamber of Commerce/Industrial Management Council's Business/Education Task Force pinpointing problems and making recommendations; (8) statistics on enrollment, attendance, dropouts, etc. in Rochester schools; and (9) a list of school action committee improvement objectives, projects to achieve those objectives and the results of those projects. (PS)