This collection of 15 papers reconceptualizes the problem of failure in schools and describe the interlocking structural arrangements, curricular and instructional practices, and other school conditions that constitute barriers blocking all students' access to knowledge. A new agenda is offered for the national reform movement, an agenda that states that quality and equality are inseparable. The following papers are included: (1) "Common Schools for the Common Weal: Reconciling Self-Interest with the Common Good" (J. I. Goodlad); (2) "Home, School, and Academic Learning" (J. P. Comer); (3) "Demographics of Disadvantage: Intensity of Childhood Poverty and Its Relationship to Educational Achievement" (M. E. Orland); (4) "Overcoming Racial Barriers to Equal Access" (J. U. Ogbu); (5)"Striving for Sex Equity in Schools" (P. Keating); (6) "Being At-Risk in School" (V. Richardson and P. Colfer); (7) "Last Things First: Realizing Equality by Improving Conditions for Marginal Students" (R. L. Sinclair and W. J. Ghory); (8) "Misunderstanding and Testing Intelligence" (A. G. Hilliard, III); (9) "Equal Access to Quality in Public Schooling: Issues in the Assessment of Equity and Excellence" (K. A. Sirotnik); (10) "Tracking and Ability Grouping: A Structural Barrier to Access and Achievement" (J. Oakes and M. Lipton); (11) "School Renewal: Taking Responsibility for Providing an Education of Value" (S. S. Hoo); (12) "Enhancing Access to Knowledge through School and District Organization" (C. Wilson and L. Wright); (13) "Teacher Quality and Equality" (L. Darling-Hammond and J. Green); (14) "Educators for a Truly Democratic System of Schooling" (C. M. Hodge); and (15) "Political Limits to an Education of Value: The Role of the State" (J. A. Cardenas). A concluding note on the EEQP colloquium based on these 15 papers and an index are included. (SLD)