Designed to aid teachers, school administrators, and parents in selecting excellent education software for grades K-12, this guide reports the results of over 7,800 evaluations of educational software programs and lists the 250 selected as the newest education software winners. In addition to these programs, this 1986 edition has added software that has received high ratings from evaluation services specializing in special education. Following the introduction, which provides a detailed explanation of how the programs cited were selected, the guide is divided into four parts: Part I contains an alphabetical listing of the 168 most highly rated programs, which include courseware in the areas of business education, college entrance examinations, computer education, early childhood education, fine arts, foreign language, language arts, mathematics, problem-solving, science, and social studies, as well as tool programs; Part II contains information on 54 nearly qualifying programs; Part III provides information on 28 highly rated special education programs; and Part IV lists the most highly rated programs in the 1985 edition. Each description includes the publisher, system requirements, subject area, price, and grade levels. Information on the most highly rated programs also includes a brief description of each program, the appropriate subject area(s), and evaluation service ratings. (DJR)