The Basic Skills Task Force within the United States Office of Education was created to provide the effective use of knowledge among the various basic skills programs in the country and to foster increased local impact from Federal education funds. On the assumption that with cooperation and coordination existing programs can meet the basic skills needs of most citizens, this task force defines itself as a social change mechanism with the following goals: to clarify the nature of basic skills and develop a cross-disciplinary focus to solve the problem; to establish and use productive relationships with other public and private programs on the state and local level; to develop and implement effective delivery systems for federal basic skills programs in order to match the resources with the people needing basic skills; and to increase competence in basic skills for all citizens through improved instruction in elementary and secondary schools. (MAI)