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Comments on New York State Education Commissioner Thomas Sobol's criticism of the state's social studies curriculum. His poor choice of Christopher Columbus as an example; The storm raging around multicultural education.

Covers the funeral of Isaac Bashevis Singer, a rabbi and the winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature for his depiction of Jewish life in Poland and the bitter absurdities of immigrant life here. He died on July 24 in Florida at age 87. The funeral service was held July 28 at Riverside Memorial Chapel in Manhattan.

Profiles Isaac Bashevis Singer, the Nobel-Prize winning author, who died on July 24 in Florida at age 87. (Obituary on page B5: Isaac Bashevis Singer, Nobel Laureate for his Yiddish stories, is dead at 87, by E. Pace; Related articles on page B5:A storyteller on the truth of fiction; Fellow writers remember the charm, wit and irony and the child, by E. Blau.)

Discusses the public bickering between New York City Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez and the seven members of the Board of Education. Fernandez accused of choking off the board's access to his staff to minimize any appearance of dissent.Fernandez's criticism of the board.

Says that New York City Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez is growing increasingly frustrated with the seven-member Board of Education that oversees him, telling associates that the board's unrelenting stream of memorandums is encroaching upon his day-to-day managerial authority and hampering his work. Tensions; Fernandez' veiled threats of quitting.

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.

Comments on the election of H. Carl McCall as president of the New York City Board of Education in an atmosphere of disharmony and some bitterness that may cloud his efforts to shape the board into an effective policy-making body. Public show of resentment; Complaint of Mayor David N. Dinkins' influence.

Presents the views of H. Carl McCall, who is a black, a former State Senator, a former State Commissioner of the Division of Human Rights, and the prospective president of the New York City Board of Education. His opinions on a number of sensitive issues that the board is likely to face.

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.

Analyzes the debate over the New York State social studies curriculum that followed the report of a panel recommending broad principles for change. Asks whether the US is a land where immigrants and minorities mute their distinct traditions and histories to adopt a common culture, or a land where ethnicity should be celebrated over and above any shared heritage.

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.

States that four borough presidents injected themselves into the contest for the leadership of the New York City Board of Education, meeting secretly to decide whether to support H. Carl McCall, Mayor David N. Dinkins' nominee, and weigh what they could get from Dinkins if they did.

Analyzes the problem that New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins faces as he names H. Carl McCall as his choice for president of the Board of Education. Impact of the new City Charter.

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.

Discusses the possible removal of Dr. Gwendolyn C. Baker as president of the New York City Board of Education when a re-election vote comes up in three weeks. Her removal would be a political embarrassment for Mayor David N. Dinkins, who appointed her, because it would indicate that he was not able to shape the board's choice. Why some are unhappy with Baker's performance; Ninfa Segarra, 41-year-old lawyer, the most likely successor.

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.'

Tells of the reinstatement of William E. Ubinas, 35, as superintendent of a school on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He had been suspended two weeks ago for failing to reveal a conviction for sale and possession of cocaine and marijuana as an18-year-old student in Alabama, and was sentenced to five years' probation. Parental support for Ubinas.

Says that William E. Ubinas, a 35-year-old native of Puerto Rico and superintendent of School District 1 on the Lower East Side of New York City, has been suspended for failing to disclose that when he was 18 years old he was convicted of possessing cocaine and selling marijuana in Alabama. Issue under investigation; School board split.

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.

States that, in an effort to scale back school programs for the handicapped, New York State will increase class sizes permitted for students classified as having learning disabilities. Objections of advocates for the handicapped and the state's teachers unions.

Says that New York City school officials are mounting an intense effort to roll back some expensive programs aimed at handicapped students and other children who need extra academic help. Many of these programs have generally been exempt from cuts. Vote on increasing maximum class size for students with learning disability; Lobbying by teachers' unions.

Presents the findings of a report released by the Dade County (Fla.) Public Schools' Office of Educational Accountability on the experiment in power sharing, known as school-based management, which New York City Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez first tried in Miami before coming to New York. Although the effort to reform schools has worked in New York, it has not made a difference in Miami.

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.

Reports that, in a dramatic and emotional session, the New York City Board of Education narrowly approved a plan to make condoms available on request to the city's 250,000 high-school students. Parents' role at issue.

Discusses the Dinkins Administration's shift in position on the condom-distribution plan for schools. After supporting a possible compromise it backed off, then seemed to say it could live with one. The compromise would give parents the right to exclude their children from the condom program.

States that New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins favors Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez's plan for making condoms available on request to high school students, even without parental consent. Proposed compromise on the plan.

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.

Analyzes the discord among the seven members of the New York City Board of Education. When the board has not been enveloped by the fog of budget cutting, it has been preoccupied with issues like who its lawyer should be and whether high schools should distribute condoms. Increasingly, the blame for this drift is coming to rest on Dr. Gwendolyn C. Baker, the board president.

Discusses the hearing at the New York City Board of Education on the divisive issue of whether the city's high schools should provide condoms to their students. Present differing opinions.

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 plan to make condoms available on request to all New York City high school students. It may have to be scaled down before it can win approval of a majority of the Board of Education. Division in the Board.

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 two major school unions offered to defer part of their pay this year to rescue the New York City school system from a budget gap that otherwise could force severe layoffs or a payless furlough. The offer came in response to Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez's proposal for the payless furlough.

States that New York City Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez wants to place warranties on the students his high schools turn out. Under the plan, any employer who finds that a high school graduate cannot read, write, or calculate proficientlycan return the worker to school for remedial programs at no cost to the employer or the student.

Discusses New York City Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez's proposed plan to ask the school worker unions and the city to agree to close schools for three days in the spring to avoid as many as 4,000 layoffs of teachers and other employees byJanuary 15.

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.