Spurred on by such discussions of education as Jenk's "Inequality" and Coleman's controversial pronouncements on desegregation orders and "white flight," this anthology focuses on the efficacy of educational reform. The articles were compiled from two issues of the journal "Social Problems." The introductory essay by Benet and Daniels provides an overview of the essays to follow, establishes a conceptual framework, and presents questions to guide future educational research. The first set of papers (Education and Class in Western Europe) focuses on educational opportunity in Western Europe, governmental policy in higher education with emphasis on the French university, and educational equality in the United States. The second set (Strategies of Control and Freedom) considers the overall system, the classroom, and the perceptions of individuals--students, teachers, families. Section Three (Two Languages as Double Trouble) focuses on bilingualism and the difficulties coping with it. Section Four (Efforts at Reform) examines how federal aid could be subverted to the needs of a local school system. The fifth set of papers (Professor: Resistance to Change) focuses on the resistance of educational structures to deep reform. The final section (School Desegregation) shows the social policy implications of white enrollment declines when black students appear in large numbers. References are provided at the end of each paper. It is concluded that interdisciplinary study is needed to understand the connection between individual aspirations and social systems. (LC)