This paper presents the reports of the National Task Forces on Urban, Rural, Migrant, Native American and Bilingual/Bicultural Education. The Task Forces were asked to pinpoint strategies for instructional and programmatic improvement in these areas. The focus of inquiry was on reading and mathematics instruction. Attention was also paid to elements that are seldom examined such as pupils' needs, the concerns of parents and communities, and the problems of administration and the frustration of teachers. Although each task force was considered separately, several issues which were similar enough to be considered common to each group are treated together. The five areas that reflected mutual concern were: curriculum development, performance evaluation, personnel training, parent and community participation, and funding. Among the findings were the following: (1) each of the task forces indicated a need for a utilitarian-based education, reflecting the particular needs of pupils from disparate cultural background, (2) national standardized testing was criticized by all task forces for being a poor tool used to evaluate the performance of non-middle class and non-white pupil populations, (3) the task forces stressed that effective teachers were those sensitive to the unique needs of the community served by their school, and (4) all task forces stressed the urgent need for long-range planning to achieve sound program implementation. (Author/AM)