This report recommends measures to improve elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education in Iowa while providing universal access to education. The proposal stresses unified goals throughout the state's educational system, while retaining local discretion over curriculum. Although the report emphasizes high school-to-college articulation, it recommends uniform competencies for all students to prepare them for life and work as well as for college. These competencies, drawn from the College Board's 1983 report on college preparation, are conceived as broad intellectual skills rather than absolute achievements. The report consists of six sections, as follows: (1) an executive summary; (2) an introduction, explaining the background and scope of the report; (3) an explanation of the report's objectives and a review of relevant literature, including an outline of proposed competencies in reading, writing, speaking and listening, mathematics, reasoning, and studying; (4) 17 recommendations, mostly for specific types of articulation; (5) a closing summary; and (6) an appendix describing the objectives, operation, and membership of the committee that compiled this report. (MCG)