A statewide task force established to improve educational equity in New York State describes its activities and results in this report. The task force chairman's letter of submittal discusses the Levittown v. Nyquist decision that led to the task force's formation and reviews the group's deliberations. The report then summarizes task force recommendations regarding the state's basic aid formula, unequal student needs, measures of fiscal capacity, fiscal overburden, state aid formulas other than basic aid, property and income taxes, tax limitations, and the costs of implementing the recommendations. The background of the Levittown case and the nature of the plaintiffs' financial problems are discussed next, as part of the introduction to the task force's research. The report's final section outlines these research activities and results, in two areas. In the first area, student needs, five research studies looked at special student needs, gifted and talented students, costs of school programs, special funding for grades K-3, and basic education in primary grades. In the area of fiscal capacity and overburden, six research projects examined New York State school districts' fiscal capacity and cost differentials, tax base equalization, municipal overburden, and rural school funding. (RW)