This paper discusses the Futures-Perspectives in American Education which is a method of educational planning which attempts to comprehensively and systematically speculate about long term possibilities in the educational domain and social environment. Part I is concerned with what it means to think about the future. Methods for thinking about alternative educational futures are presented with the underlying assumptions that education is not an isolated set of phenomenon, independent of other sectors of society; consequently planning must be done in conjunction with speculation about changes in the technological and societal environment which might effect education. Part II reviews the plans of American Education for the future. Five models have been developed to synthesize the major ways of viewing the future: (1) the future as the present; (2) the future as an extrapolation of the present; (3) the single alternative future; (4) the technological future; and (5) the comprehensive future. Part III presents the conceptual, organizational, and methodological problems involved in the futures perspective. Two critiques of the paper are also included. (RSM/Author)