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Reports that in the wake of disclosures heard on tapes made by school superintendent Colman Glen, Chancellor Bernard Mecklowitz has suspended nine members of the board of School District 27 in Queens, New York for improperly influencing appointments. Other school board suspensions in New York City recently; What was heard on the tapes.

Reports that Colman Genn, 53, testified before the Joint Commission on Integrity in Public Schools in Manhattan that school board members in School District 27 in Queens pressured him into filling unnecessary jobs with their friends and supporters. Genn taped the conversations; Genn's contract renewal; Role of James C. Sullivan.

Examines the progress of 61 East Harlem students promised payment of college tuition if they stayed in school from sixth grade through high school. Details of the scholarship program sponsored by Eugene M. Lang, of the `I Have a Dream Foundation'; Lang's personal involvement with the students; Student response.

Discusses the mistrust and bickering that still persist a year after New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins moved to control a divided Board of Education by replacing its president. Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez believes his efforts to reform the public schools are being hobbled by the tensions on the board. Frustration of H. Carl McCall, president of the Board.

States that school officials accused New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins of diverting $67 million that the New York Legislature had pledged for education, and they warned that the lost money would force a harmful increase in class size in the early grades. But the city's budget director, Philip R. Michael, said that the increase in class size was the least distasteful of the unsavory choices the school system faced.

Tells what educators must do to get a job as a school principal in New York City since decentralization turned control of elementary and junior high schools over to 32 elected school boards. Competence alone won't get them a job.

Reports that six months after an early-retirement plan stripped the New York City school system of 211 of its principals, only 26 of those vacancies have been filled as parents and teachers have been bogged down in a new selection process. Donald Singer, president of the principals' union, said that the slowness of the selections has set off ripples of uncertainty that are undermining the education of the system's 975,000 children.

States that the Dinkins Administration's official review of the deadly crush at a city College gymnasium last month blames virtually all the parties that arranged and oversaw the celebrity basketball game. It reproached student organizers, college officials, a rap promoter, the police and the spectators themselves. Some of its sharpest criticism was for the Police Department.

States that a City College administrator said that he pleaded with a police captain for help at a crucial moment around the time that a human crush ultimately killed nine people at a celebrity basketball game. But the captain, instead of responding promptly, reproached him for five to seven minutes about the college's mistakes before finally calling for an ambulance. The union that represents police captains denied the account.

States that the trustees and Chancellor of the City University of New York closely questioned top officials of City College about their roles in planning a celebrity basketball game that turned deadly for nine young people. They then announced that the college would create its own security force as early as July, with guards who will be given new powers to make arrests and carry pistols. Currently, the college uses Pinkerton's guards under a contract.

Comments on the confusion following the death of eight young people waiting to get into a basketball game at City College in New York City on December 28. Explanation of the whereabouts of the money raised by the event; Dispute with promoter; Rap stars; Investigations.

Discusses the deteriorating conditions in New York City's school system. Overcrowded classrooms, outdated textbooks, scarcity of writing paper, narrowed variety of sources, and fewer guidance counselors are the result of a $430 million cut in theschool system's $7 billion budget and an increase of 25,000 students.

Comments on increased number of female and Hispanic principals in New York City's public school system, as the city filled vacancies created by the departure of more than 200 principals under an early retirement plan. Results of a study that analyzed the race and sex of the 221 principals who retired and the 211 who have replaced them so far.

Analyzes the condom issue in New York City high schools. The problems that will surface when the program is started sometime in the next few months; The unmapped wilderness of philosophical and legal questions as the city becomes the first in the nation to make condoms widely available without any say by parents.

Says that student leaders at the City University of New York (CUNY) spent $49,000 on a three-day lobbying excursion to the Albany Hilton and $13,000 on limousine service, in an effort to keep tuition low. They also spent $4,500 for a trip to the Ivory Coast by three students for an African-American Summit. All this was done with the knowledge and approval of the university's top officials, who gently admonished the students to be a little more frugal.

Analyzes the condom issue for New York City schools. Importance of the issue for Mayor David N. Dinkins. His surprising intervention with the Board of Education; His worries about his chances for re-election in 1993.

Describes the situation at New York City schools. It is expected that this will be the toughest school year since the mid-1970s fiscal crisis. Crowded classrooms; Shortages of teachers; Unprecedented turnover in principals; Layoffs averted but much experience lost.

Profiles the seven members of the New York City Board of Education, seven distinctly chiseled personalities who together set policies for a system of 956,000 students. They labor in relative anonymity, with Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez making the news.

Discusses the New York City Board of Education's debate over distributing condoms to students. Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez was infuriated by the board's voting to consider whether parents should be allowed to bar their children from getting them.

Presents a periodic look at the effects of New York City's financial plan on various agencies and services. Says that art, music and electives will be cut, there will be fewer guidance counselors, textbooks will have to make it through another year, and experimental programs will be abolished.

Says that New York City public-school students lifted their performance on the annual reading test, surpassing the national average for the first time in three years. Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez contended that the reading scores, coupled with the 4.9 percentage point increase in mathematics test scores announced last week and improvements in attendance and the drop-out rate, show that the city's school system is beginning to turn around.

Comments on the multiculturalism in New York City schools. Gives examples. Says that any curriculum that emerges from the state-commissioned report urging a greater emphasis on nonwhite cultures in social studies curriculum will probably have far more impact in suburbs and small towns with more uniform populations than New York City's.

Discusses New York City's public-school students' startling improvement in mathematics over the last year. 60.6 percent of those who took the annual achievement test in April performed above the national average, an increase of 4.9 percentage points over the test's results in 1990, and the largest one-year gain in at least 20 years.

Reports that fewer New York City high school students are dropping out before their original graduation date and more are staying in high school for five, six or seven years. School officials attribute this to a decade of dropout prevention programs--everything from a more determined badgering of truants to the creation of small alternative high schools.

States that more than 1,000 additional New York City teachers are expected to retire in the next month to take advantage of pension incentives passed by the state Legislature. The plan will allow the city's school system to save the jobs of many young teachers. Concerns.

Discusses the results of the New York City Board of Education's ethnic census of its 955,154 students. Decrease in number of white families leaving public school system; Spanish-speaking immigrants may soon become the system's dominant ethnic group; Influx from Eastern Europe; Other findings.

Discusses the comeback being made by Eastern District High School in Brooklyn under the leadership of Floyd Green, the 46-year-old principal. Long known for turning out more dropouts than graduates, the school is now calmer, attendance is up slightly, and assaults are down. It is the `high school of last resort for kids who have been doing poorly before they get here.'

Says that New York City Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez will propose an overhaul of the city's expensive and much criticized system of special education to reduce the number of children wrongly assigned to classes for the handicapped and tochannel more money to children in regular classes. Details of the overhaul.

Says that many children with no identifiable physical or neurological defects are being shunted into expensive programs for those with specific disabilities, when all they need is counseling and smaller classes. Cost.

Analyzes the collapse of the protest that disrupted the City University of New York (CUNY) for three weeks. Students' argument was not on local grievances, and by tying up the university they were hurting only the very students and professors they were trying to help.

Tells how police officers streamed onto a Bronx campus of the City University of New York and, without bloodshed, recaptured it from students who had chained doors shut for the last three weeks in a protest that has crippled much of CUNY. The police action came as large numbers of ordinary students, approaching graduation or seeking professional credentials, grew increasingly enraged at the duration of the protest.

Details a recent report from the Board of Education concerning a Bronx school district, No. 9 in the west-central Bronx, where two-thirds of the district's children read below grade level. Administrators `overwhelmed' by their responsibilities; Schools as `boring environments'; District superintendent Dr. Edward Whitney.

Discusses the student protests on at least eight campuses of the City University of New York. The goal is to head off tuition increases and budget cuts, but the students are asking a far deeper question, one that is also being asked at the system's highest levels: Will the financially beleaguered university be able to sustain its historic mission of offering a way out of poverty for immigrants, minorities, and the poor?

Tells about Public School 38 in southern Queens, a school with practically none of modern things that most other schools have, but whose improvement in reading scores is greater than that of any other school with a full kindergarten-through-sixth-grade program. Contrasts it to Public School 44 on the north shore of Staten Island, which had the largest drop in reading levels.

Tells about Dr. Westina L. Matthews, who cast the pivotal vote to give New York City's high schools the nation's first full condom distribution program, and how she made her tortured decision by fasting and praying.

Tells how teachers at Public School 192 in Harlem feel they have been let down. Their plan for spending $1.1 million in federal money for remedial programs was turned down by the district superintendent--the person who had encouraged them in the first place. Reason for the decision.

Discusses the findings of a Board of Education task force: The city, which prides itself as the world's cultural capital, is not providing most of its public school children with art and music classes. City's fiscal problems to blame; Effect on arts industry.

Reports that the New York City Board of Education spends $68 million a year on dropout prevention, which many educators say is an unaffordable extra. An outside study found that such programs had minimal impact.

Reports that, four months after they won a 5.5 percent wage increase, New York City teachers agreed to save their younger colleagues from layoffs by deferring part of this year's salary for four years. The agreement would defer as much as $590 in gross pay per teacher.

Discusses the proposals of the Temporary State Commission on New York City School Governance, known as the Marchi Commission. More school districts; Shift of power; Increase of mayor's accountability for the schools.

Discusses the differing views on the proposed Ujamaa high school for New York City. The school focuses on the needs of black and Hispanic young men. Features of the plan; Pros and cons.

Discusses the Ujamaa Institute that the New York City Board of Education is preparing to establish. It will be an experimental high school that, while open to both sexes and all races, would have a special emphasis on the problems of young black and Hispanic men.

States that the New York City Board of Education plans to add a high school student as a non-voting member to give the board's adults a youngster's perspective on school life.

Discusses the Educational Records Bureau in New York City, a testing service for 4-year-olds seeking admission to private schools through their kindergartens. Parents consider the test a key, at an absurdly young age, to Harvard or Yale. This month, directors of 55 of the city's top-flight nursery schools said they were `seriously considering eliminating the testing' in their schools.

Discusses the alternate-side-of-the-street parking in New York City, where car owners rise extra early each morning, and, unshaven, unwashed and unkempt, slip clothes over their pajamas and race downstairs to move their cars to the opposite side of the block to elude a $35 ticket.

Presents the second article of a periodic series on New York City schools, and tells about Richard W. Wong, 56-year-old Cantonese immigrant and the godfather of a neighbor's three children who attend Public School 192 in Harlem. He is part of an experiment in power-sharing known as school-based management that is the center of School Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez's blueprint for overhauling the city's lackluster schools. How he has contributed.

Presents the first of a periodic series. Reports on a visit to Public School 192 on Harlem's western edge, and tells about the power-sharing experiment, known as school-based management, that is the cornerstone of School Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez's plan to overhaul the schools. Details.

Discusses the plan submitted by the New York City Board of Education that allows them to take responsibility for only $57.5 million of the $94 million worth of cuts but outlined ways the remainder could be reached. Predicted results of the deep cuts.