This is one of five papers the National Advisory Council on Women's Educational Programs has commissioned to identify key problems, describe exemplary efforts to promote sex fairness, and recommend practical changes in Education Division policy and practice that would improve equity for women. This report focuses on seven major programs--each presented in a separate chapter--that represent the spectrum of federal involvement rather than its sum. The introduction contains recommendations for certain types of changes that could be made in almost all programs to further the attainment of educational equity for women and girls. Specific reviews and recommendations for each piece of legislation are included in the separate chapters. An appendix contains a general guide to analysis of legislation and regulation that would be useful to lay persons performing their own analyses. The legislation considered is the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; the Women's Educational Equity Act; the Career Education Incentive Act; the Higher Education Act of 1965, Title IV; the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IV; the Higher Education Act of 1965, Title VIII; and the Education Amendments of 1976, Title III. (Author/IRT)