Describes the background, goals, and classroom experience of the cooperative learning program initiated in Fall 1986 by the Bay Shore Union Free School District, Bay Shore, NY. Results indicate cooperative learning is effective in narrowing the margin between the achievement of minority and majority students. (PS)

A nongraded educational program of several learning levels and highly individualized instruction, financed by the district and by Elementary Secondary Education Act Title I funds, the Directed Learning Program is in its third year of operation in the Hempstead, New York school system. The program is the district-wide method of instruction for what…