This report is about recommendations for improving American public elementary and secondary education.

The Reagan Administration has proposed legislation which would seek to use trade and aid to promote political stability and economic growth in the Caribbean Basin region. Among other things, it would create a one-way free trade zone, where the small nations of the region would have an opportunity for export-led growth through duty-free access to the U.S. market. It would also provide $350 million in economic aid for 1982 to El Salvador and other Caribbean countries.

The United States has charged that the Soviet Union is implicated in the use of chemical weapons in Afghanistan and of chemical and toxin weapons, including the toxin known as "Yellow Rain," in Laos and Kampuchea (Cambodia). These charges raise two significant sets of issues: First, issues surrounding the evidence that has been presented to show: (a) that such weapons have been used and (b) that the Soviet Union is implicated in this use. Second, issues connected with the implications of Soviet involvement, if proven, in chemical and toxin warfare.

Considerable national interest has centered on merit pay for elementary and secondary school teachers since the recent release of the educational reform reports. This merit pay paper contains a background discussion, description of alternatives, summary of current and proposed programs, and analysis of evaluation and implementation implications.