This paper describes social problems that ethnic minorities are likely to experience in the 1980s and presents guidelines for shaping educational policies and programs that will help ethnic minority youths to experience more educational equity during the remainder of the decade. The minority groups discussed are those that are heavily concentrated below the poverty level and that experience enormous social, economic, and educational problems. Educational equity is defined in terms of output variables or the effects of schooling, rather than in terms of input variables such as expenditure per pupil and school facilities. Ethnic communities are likely to continue to be characterized by both a substantial lower class and a significant middle class throughout the 1980s. However, the rate of growth of the middle class ethnic community is likely to be slowed during much of the decade. The working class will remain a significant segment of ethnic communities. The following issues, which will continue to be important for the education of minorities throughout the 1980s, are discussed and policy issues related to them are presented: (1) teaching minority youths the basic skills; (2) teaching English to children who speak other first languages; (3) standardized testing of minority group populations; (4) minimal competency testing; (5) preschool care and educational programs; (6) private and public schools; and (7) ethnic studies programs in the nation's schools and colleges. (Author/RM)