Even without the Governor's proposals in the last week, the quality of education in the state was very much on the public's mind following the release from the State Department of Education of a crush of paper called school report cards.

According to State Education Commissioner Richard Mills, the purpose of the reports, the first of their kind in New York State, was to raise the public's consciousness about how their districts stand up against comparable districts and to push for higher student achievement.

Filled with Regents rankings and bar graphs and pass-fail rates on standardized elementary-level math and reading tests, among others, the cumbersome documents recap data presented to school boards last summer.

If nothing else, Mary Ann Awad, the project coordinator, said, the reports had prompted more public discussion about student performance than she had heard in 17 years at the department.

While that is desirable, the public's ability to assess the meaning of their districts' report cards was undermined by the very department that went to so much trouble to produce them. The department released the reports to the school districts three weeks before allowing the public to review them. That gave tacit encouragement to school administrators to massage the numbers and present the best spin.

More substantively, the comparison of "similar districts" did not work adequately. It would have been more appropriate, many say, to compare East Hampton, for example, with Southampton, than with districts UpIsland with different populations.

The reports contained some bad news on the issue of subject "mastery." The state says an 85 or better score on Regents tests indicates mastery, a score that so far has proved elusive for the majority of test-takers. In addition, the number of elementary school students testing above the minimum standard, below which remedial help becomes necessary, showed a "disturbing trend," the Commissioner said, although the state is somewhat skeptical of the tests used and is revising them.

Beyond that, the report cards provide a way, in the Commissioner's words, for districts to re-evaluate how they "grow from here" and "what actually works." In East Hampton, there is talk now of mandatory tutoring during the school day. In Amagansett and Montauk, and we hope elsewhere, efforts are already under way to shore up reading skills by adding faculty and training for existing teachers.

Whether the positive results will justify the expense of preparing the report cards is anybody's guess, however. When asked this week how much the project actually cost, Ms. Awad said, "I have no idea."

AMAGANSETT

Hughes to John Albright, Jacqueline Drive, $487,500.

BRIDGEHAMPTON

Davids to Jacqueline Weiden and Marc Maltz, Meadowlark Lane, $630,000.

Kewo Corp. to Frank and Eileen Russo, Ludlow Green, $375,000.

Mahoney to Ellen Chesler and Matthew Mallow, Ocean Road, $1,610,000.

Alcan N.V. to Michael and Mary Weiner, Trelawney Road, $500,000.

EAST HAMPTON

West to Anthony and Maureen Gallucci, Miller Lane West, $180,000.

Shanholt to Richard and Mary Smith, Borden Lane, $718,000.

D'Errico to Sean Sullivan and Steven Russell, Springy Banks Road, $164,500. MONTAUK

Ian to Michael and Susan Mc Car thy, Seaside Avenue, $217,500.

NORTHWEST

Davis to Robert Savage and Nanette Lepore, Old Northwest Road, $190,000.

Rallyn Homes Inc. to Madeline Esposito, Country Lane, $240,000.

NOYAC

Tiska to Mark Haas, Middle Line Highway, $270,000.

SAG HARBOR

Paetz to Sonia Toledo, Notre Dame Road, $315,000.

SPRINGS

Horstmann to Ronald Goldberg and Brian Palmer, Delevan Street, $175,000.

WATER MILL

Balodis to Joy Sugarman and Kelly Behun, Potato Barn Road, $800,000.

The Comitato Taormina Arte in Taormina, Italy, is far from the first to recognize the world-renowned avant garde director/designer/visual artist/perform er Robert Wilson. But it is the most recent, having honored him on Jan. 5 with its 1996 Europe Prize for Theater, which brings with it a $65,000 cash award.

That money, plus the $200,000 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize awarded to Mr. Wilson in October, has been donated to Mr. Wilson's Byrd Hoffman Foundation in Manhattan, which will put it toward for the continuing renovation and expansion of Mr. Wilson's Watermill Center.

Founded in 1992, the center, housed in the former Western Union Laboratory on Water Mill Towd Road, is projected to be a year-round multi-disciplinary and residential hub for artists and students from around the world.

Building Progress

In recent months, progress has been made toward realizing the vision.

The first phase of the renovations, concentrating on the complex's south wing, has been completed, and work on the north wing is slated to begin next month. Most of the living accommodations will be in the north wing: dormitories and kitchen and dining facilities.

Steven Parkey, who was named the director of the Byrd Hoffman Foundation in August, hopes the second phase will include work on the south wing's basement as well, to transform it into an archive for Mr. Wilson's work.

Work on the center has progressed as funds have been available, and its annual summertime fund-raiser has already been scheduled for Aug. 17. The event will include cocktails, a brief performance, and dinner.

Lifetime Achievement

Mr. Wilson, a native of Waco, Tex., who now lives part-time in Water Mill, accepted the Taormina Prize at a ceremony there. Taormina, a world-famous winter resort in Sicily, lies at the foot of Mount Etna and looks out over the Ionian Sea.

The award was presented by the Taormina Art Committee, made up of visual artists, journalists, and others with connections to the European art world.

Mr. Wilson was recognized not for any one dramatic production or artwork but for his extensive body of achievement, according to Steven Beer, a spokesman for the Byrd Hoffman Foundation.

The prize, established in 1986 under the auspices of the European Union, is awarded to the individual or production "that has best contributed to helping mutual knowledge and understanding among people belonging to different cultures," the foundation's press release stated.

"Visionary"

The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, an annual cash award, was set up in the will of the actress Lillian Gish, who died about four years ago. Its goal is more general: to recognize someone who has created beauty. Mr. Wilson is the third person to receive this honor.

The director has been the recipient of Rockefeller and Guggenheim fellowships as well as Obie, Bessie, and Drama Desk Awards. "Einstein on the Beach," Black Rider," "Medea," and a performance of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" are among his multimedia theatrical productions.

Mr. Wilson "is a futurist and a visionary," Martin Bernheimer wrote in The Los Angeles Times in 1990.

"Wilson can be considered this country's - or even the world's - foremost vanguard theater artist," John Rockwell wrote in The New York Times Magazine two years later.

Mr. Wilson is now in Paris, where "Time Rocker," his new musical collaboration with the singer- songwriter Lou Reed, has just opened.

It may not be that surprising if a broker from Allan Schneider Associates Inc. manages to sell the London Bridge sometime soon. After all, some of its top producers will be spending their vacations in London this year.

The real estate firm, which had "a banner year, not only in sales but rentals too," according to its president, Peter L. Hallock, decided to give novel awards - round-trip tickets for two to London - to its seven top brokers at its Christmas party in December.

Earning the free trips are the firm's overall sales leader, Barbara Sloan of the Southampton office, and other top producers from each of the firm's six offices: Mary Ann Cinelli of East Hampton, Joseph Messemer of Amagansett, Esther Paster of Bridgehampton, Andrew Tilson of North Sea, Arlene Ball of Sag Harbor, and Nancy McGann of Southampton.

Allan Schneider also gave sales-related awards to other brokers, including Fabio Velez, Victoria Thompson, Barbara Hendricks, Susan Breitenbach, Pat Garrity, John Drum, Penelope Sweeney, Arlene Reckson, Susan Thayer, Alison Barwick Wolters, Elizabeth Gibson, and Kerry Beck.

In the past, the firm gave top salespeople commemorative gifts of crystal or silver from Tiffany's, according to Mr. Hallock. "We just thought it would be a place people would like to go to," said Mr. Hallock. "We're Anglophiles."

Mr. Hallock said sales in 1996 were up by 40 percent over 1995 levels and rentals rose 20 percent in the same period, although he declined to give specific figures.

The president said he did not think having some of the firm's top salespeople out of the office would hurt 1997 sales. "That's why they're top producers. They'll probably not take the trip," he joked. "There's a method to our madness."

The East Hampton Trails Preservation Society will host a "Mystery Hike" on Sunday of between five and seven miles, beginning at 11 a.m. The trail-blazing walk will be led by Rick Whalen and will include some bushwhacking. Hikers who "enjoy a physical challenge, with a taste of uncertainty in the outcome," have been urged to join in, and to bring liquids and snacks.

The mysterious event will commence at the entrance to the George Sid Miller Trail on Fresh Pond Road in Amagansett, about a mile north of the intersection with Abram's Landing Road.

Michael McAllister of the Group for the South Fork is scheduled to describe Long Island's natural re sources via models and slides at the Group's office in Bridgehampton on Saturday from 10 a.m. until noon. Those interested have been asked to call for reservations.

For hikers willing to go a little farther afield, the Long Island Greenbelt Trails Conference will hold a six-mile walk around Miller Pond in Smithtown. Hikers will meet at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Conference offices in the Blydenburgh-Weld House in Blydenburgh Park, Smithtown.

On Sunday, the Conference plans a brisk walk along the beaches of Robert Moses Park in Fire Island, to and from Democrat Point, on the barrier island's western tip. The meeting place, at 1 p.m., is the Field Two concession building.

Also on Sunday, the Conference is hosting a four-mile trek through Riverhead's Indian Island County Park, at the mouth of the Peconic River. It will start at 10 a.m. The office in Smithtown can be contacted for more information and reservations.

In response to a growing need for volunteers on America's public lands, the American Hiking Society has published "Helping Out in the Outdoors 1997," a comprehensive guide to volunteer positions on public lands throughout the country.

Volunteer positions available range from fire lookouts in the Arizona Strip District to hydrologists, fishery managers, and wildlife biologists in the Florida Everglades. A wide range of ages and skill levels are needed, and though most opportunities are outdoors, there are some administrative positions available.

The publication, organized by state and region, is available from the society by sending $7 to AHS Helping Out, 1422 Fenwick Lane, Silver Spring, Md. 20910 or by calling 301-565-6704.

For those who have been lamenting the weather of the past year, it's now official: 1996 was the wettest and snowiest on record for the East End - with 65.21 inches of total precipitation and 84 inches of snow.

The old precipitation record in 1983, 63.85 inches, was broken by nearly an inch and a half. Indeed, there was 50 percent more than the average annual precipitation hereabouts, 45.97 inches. (Snowfall is translated into inches of precipitation by melting the snow.)

The unusually heavy snowfall broke a much older record, according to statistics compiled by Richard Hendrickson, a U.S. Cooperative Weather Observer in Bridgehampton. The 84-inch total was half an inch more than the previous record, set in 1905.

Wettest Months

The 16 snowstorms between January and March included seven in January that dumped 32.7 inches, seven in February amounting to 17 inches, and two in March totaling 10.5 inches. Snow continued into April, when 10 inches fell.

The wettest months were January, April, July, August, September, October, and especially December with 8.44 inches. That was not a record, however; 9.9 inches fell in December of 1936. Almost as wet was April, with 8.23 inches of rain.

After a severe winter, the spring and summer were unusually cool and rainy. May stayed cool, cloudy, and wet. Then on May 20, from out of the blue, the temperature soared to 92 degrees - the hottest day of the summer, although summer officially was still a month away. The following day there was an 88-degree high.

Summer At Last

June was memorable for its cool temperatures and nine days of fog in the first 13 days. July continued cool and wet. There was a near miss from Hurricane Bertha, plus a whole lot of fog, the kind usually associated with June.

August was much cooler than usual, with fog. Summer came at last in September. The first 10 days were hot, 80 degrees or higher. Then it got wet again, with more than seven inches of rain. However, the East End was spared any hurricanes.

Over all, it was "one of the coolest and wettest summers ever recorded," according to Mr. Hendrickson.

October featured three days with winds in excess of 50 miles per hour. The month was wet with temperatures mostly in the 60s.

Mild December

During November night temperatures dropped into the 20s and 30s. Precipitation was light, only half the average amount for the month. The most serious weather occurred during the late afternoon and evening of the 28th when an eighth-inch of snow caused icy roads and a number of fender benders on Thanksgiving Day.

December remained mild, mainly in the 40s, and it rained. The warmest temperature was 54 on the 17th. The coldest December day was New Year's Eve with a high of 18.

Burton Lane, whose tunes for Broadway musicals and Hollywood movies became classics and whose Amagansett house was a gathering place for talent, fun, and evening sing-alongs for more than 20 years, died in Manhattan on Sunday. He was 84.

His wife, Lynn, said he had died of a stroke, "at home and in his own bed."

A composer whose career spanned six decades from the early 1930s, Mr. Lane wrote the music for "Finian's Rainbow" and "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever." Both Broadway shows had successful runs and became equally successful movies.

Songs Mr. Lane composed for "Finian's Rainbow" - "Ol' Devil Moon," "How Are Things in Glocca Morra," "Look to the Rainbow," "When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love" - and the title number from "Clear Day" have become standards of American show-tune music, as familiar today as when they were first performed or recorded by such stars as Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Ella Logan, Fred Astaire, Libby Holman, Petula Clark, and Barbra Streisand.

Mr. Lane's association with the East End began in 1957, when he and his wife rented an East Hampton house. In the mid-'60s, they bought a house in Amagansett. "Some of the happiest years of our marriage were spent in Amagansett," said Mrs. Lane, "surrounded by interesting and creative friends."

Mr. Lane brought the house down in the summer of 1983 when he sang and played the piano in a Guild Hall evening devoted to "The Songs of Burton Lane."

Friends recalled him this week as a man unusually well disposed toward his fellows, "an extraordinary man," said Murray Schisgal, the playwright. "It is very rare to find a person of genius with gentility, humility, and great generosity of soul: Burton Lane was that rare man."

Mr. Schisgal described "walking along the ocean's edge at the Atlantic Avenue" Beach with Mr. Lane, Robert Aurthur, and Alfred Crown "as among the brightest memories of my life."

"When we first rented in East Hampton," said the lyricist Sheldon Harnick, "he was very generous to us, inviting us to use the pool. Out here, he and his wife were wonderful hosts who gave wonderful evening parties when he would sit down and play, when guests such as Cy Coleman would gather around the piano to sing."

Burton Lane was born on Feb. 2, 1912, in New York City to Lazarus Levy and the former Frances Fink. He grew up on Manhattan's West Side and attended the High School of Commerce. He played viola and cello in the school orchestra and studied piano, but dropped out of high school to seek work as a composer for Tin Pan Alley music publishing companies.

An introduction to George Gershwin when Mr. Lane was still a teenager led to a friendship that lasted until Mr. Gershwin's death in 1937. By that time, Mr. Lane himself was established as a force in the American music industry.

From the early '30s to the late '70s, Mr. Lane led a bicoastal life, working in Hollywood for the movies and in New York for the musical theater. Among his hit tunes were "How About You," sung by Ms. Garland in the 1941 "Babes on Broadway," and "Everything I Have Is Yours," from the 1933 film "Dancing Lady," starring Fred Astaire. Both songs received Academy Award nominations.

An early '40s Broadway musical called "Hold Onto Your Hats" starred Martha Raye and Al Jolson. In 1951, Mr. Lane wrote the score for "Royal Wedding," with Jane Powell and Mr. Astaire.

His biggest hits, however, were the songs he wrote for the 1947 "Finian's Rainbow," which became a movie 20 years later, and for "Clear Day." The latter show won a Grammy award for Mr. Lane and his collaborator, Alan Jay Lerner, and was made into a movie five years later.

Besides Mr. Lerner, Mr. Lane worked with many other top lyricists of his time, among them E.Y. (Yip) Harburg, Ira Gershwin, Frank Loesser, Harold Adamson, and Ralph Freed.

He wrote his last Broadway show, "Carmelina," in 1979, in collaboration with Mr. Lerner. It is being revived for production this year by Connecticut's Goodspeed Opera House. A month ago Mr. Harnick heard a new song composed by Mr. Lane for the revival. "He was still writing extremely well, and his new song for 'Carmelina' is wonderful," he said.

Mr. Lane was a past president of the American Society of Composers and Publishers, a board member of the Y.A.I./National Institute of People with Disabilities, and a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Diana Lane of Manhattan, from his first marriage to Marion Seaman, and three stepdaughters, Peggy and Elizabeth Kaye of Manhattan and Hillary Kaye of Los Angeles.

A memorial service was held yesterday at the Riverside Memorial Chapel in Manhattan. Mr. Harnick, Mr. Coleman, the writer Jimmy Breslin, and Mr. Lane's stepdaughter, Elizabeth Kay, were among those who spoke.

The jazz pianist George Shearing opened the service, playing "On a Clear Day," and Len Cariou, a friend, concluded it by singing "One More Walk Around the Garden," one of Mr. Lane's last compositions.

The family has suggested memorial contributions to the Young Adults Institute, 460 West 34th Street, 11th floor, New York City 10001. B.S.

    The 1999 version of the two-day Long Island Fishermen's Forum gets under way on Friday, Jan. 22, at the eastern campus of Suffolk Community College in Riverhead.

    The annual series of workshops, trade displays, health checkups, and safety seminars, all aimed at commercial fishermen, is sponsored by the marine program of Cornell Cooperative Extension.

    As usual, this year's forum agenda calls for morning and afternoon sessions on both days. The first day gets started at 9 a.m. in room 111 of the Shinnecock Building with a session focusing on aquaculture. Dave Relyea of F.M. Flower and Sons of Oyster Bay will speak about Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a shellfish bacterium.

More About Shellfish

    There is an emergent market for live (in the shell) bay scallops here in the Northeast. Ed Richardson of E.J. Richardson Associates will speak about the market, as will Jeff Gardener of Shellfish for You of Westerly, R.I.

    Steve Lang of York College will present his economic and social evaluation of the oyster farming training program in East Hampton.

    Blue mussel culturing is the subject Jeff Davidson of the University of Prince Edward Island will address.

How To Regulate

    Friday afternoon, beginning at 1 p.m., will be devoted to the always-thorny subject of fisheries management. This session will be held in room 111 of the Shinnecock Building. Tony DiLernia, New York delegate to the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, will moderate discussions on a number of species.

    Bob Hamilton of the Mid-Atlantic Council will bring fishermen up to speed on the abundance and regulation of yellowtail and winter flounder.

    Gordon Colvin, the state's director of marine resources, will discuss fluke (summer flounder) and the possibility that the current state-by-state system of management will be abandoned in favor of a more uniform plan favored by many fishermen.

Along The Coast

    It will be Bob Hamilton's duty to explain the management of scup (porgies) via a combined coastwide/state quota system.

    Jim O'Malley of the New England Fishery Management Council will discuss the possibility of a complete closure of the dogfish fishery.

    Jack Dunnigan of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is scheduled to be on hand to discuss the commission's management plans for species that migrate coastwide within state waters.

    What's changing on the state level is the question that Byron Young of the Department of Environmental Conservation will undertake to answer.

Internet Info

    That fishery management is complex is not a surprise to fishermen, but what may surprise them is how easy it is these days to get a hold of important data, including regulatory updates. To this end, there will be a hands-on demonstration, both days, on how to find such information on the Internet.

    Free medical screenings also will be offered both days, all day. Health care workers from Stony Brook Univeristy Medical Center will test hearing, blood pressure, pulmonary function, and more. On Friday at 10 a.m., Dr. Wajdy Hailoo of the medical center will talk about health and safety issues confronted by fishermen.

    A wetlands workshop is scheduled in room 101 of the Shinnecock Building from 8:30 to noon on Friday. Chris Pickerel of the Extension Service will present "Non-Tidal Pond Basics."

Pond Dredging

    Allan Connell of the Natural Resources Conservation Service will speak about non-tidal hydrology and water control structures, Sven Hoeger of the Creative Habitat company will describe landscaping for erosion control, and Mark Bellaud of the Aquatic Control company will tell how to manage nuisance aquatic vegetation and algae.

    From 1 to 4 p.m. in room 111, Ed Lynch, Federal construction project coordinator for the County Department of Public Works, will speak about the dredging of non-tidal ponds.

    Steve Lawrence of the D.E.C. will add some things to keep in mind when considering such dredging.

Vessel Safety

    On Jan. 23, a Saturday, beginning at 8:30 a.m., Ed Michels, an East Hampton harbormaster and former commanding officer of the Montauk Coast Guard station, will give a refresher course in fishing vessel safety. He will review Coast Guard required safety drills including flooding control, man-overboard, and abandon ship procedure.

    How to respond to hypothermia and resuscitation will be reviewed in addition to the basic onboard safety requirements. Mr. Michels will be in room 112 of the Shinnecock Building.

    Also on Jan. 23, at 11 a.m. in room 116 of the Shinnecock Building, Creighton Wirick of Brookhaven National Laboratory will bring fishermen up to date on brown algae and what is being done to find the cause of its periodic blooming.

Lobster Management

    The same day, from 10 a.m. until noon, Jack Dunnigan, executive director of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, will present an updated lobster management plan in room 111 of the Shinnecock Building. This session should be lively, in that the commission has suggested limiting the number of traps a lobsterman may use.

    And then there is the more theoretical discussion about whether Long Island Sound lobsters mature faster (at a smaller size) than elsewhere. A few lobstermen are sure to reason that, if this is so, the population should be managed differently.

    An update of lobstering rules in New York State will be presented by Carl Lobue of the D.E.C.

A human bone, a femur, found in August on a Montauk beach may be that of a TWA Flight 800 victim, officials announced this week.

A Manhattan woman vacationing in Montauk found the femur on a beach some five miles west of Montauk Point. Susan Hoffman thought it belonged to an animal and took it back to the city with her.

According to Ellen Borakove of the New York City Medical Examiner's office, Ms. Hoffman became concerned last month when friends told her the bone might be human remains. She brought it to detectives at the 19th Precinct, who turned it over to Ms. Borakove's office.

Officials there had intended to hand it on to the Suffolk County Medical Examiner. "We knew Dr. [Charles] Wetli would want to see it," Ms. Borakove said Tuesday. Dr. Wetli's office was to have received the bone on Friday.

However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation intervened, asking to run tests on it first. It is now in F.B.I. custody.

The bodies of 15 crash victims have never been recovered.