December 28, 1982

THE indicators of the public schools' academic achievement have risen dramatically in 1982, but the public still thinks the public schools are failing. The year about to end may well have been the schools' most successful in several decades, but at the same time, they face severe cutbacks in financial support from all sources - local, state and Federal. The colleges, which have doubled their enrollments in the last 15 years and opened the doors to greater numbers of women and minorities than in any previous period, are reporting the first signs of economic barriers that may block the way to deserving but indigent candidates. Such contradictory trends alarm many observers who, in recent years, have been exhorting the schools to toughen their standards and promising that such self-improvement would insure strong new public support. It now appears that even though the schools in many places have kept their side of the bargain, the rewards are lagging. In New York City, for example, fiscal austerity threatens to hit schools harder than other public services. In higher education nationwide, the elite colleges recently reported a reduction by more than a third in the number of students from low-income families in the last two years.

New York City traffic officials said yesterday that they were concerned about the effects of new Federal regulations permitting double trailer trucks more than 75 feet long on many of the city's crowded streets, but that they would comply with the law. The officials said they feared that the new rules would lead to increased congestion and additional accidents. ''I think there is a safety problem because of the narrowness of some streets in New York City,'' said Arthur Asserson, an assistant commissioner with the City Transportation Department. ''We have a hard enough time moving any vehicle through some districts, especially business districts.''

For more than a year, Charles Flynn, a salesman, and his wife, Deirdre, a bookkeeper, saved money against the day when mortgage rates fell. Several weeks ago they stopped waiting and decided to buy a $120,000 town house in suburban Orange County. ''Our payments will be over $900 a month,'' Mr. Flynn said, ''but six months ago the payments would have been almost $1,300. We decided we'd better buy now before interest and prices went up again.''

Mayor Koch announced yesterday a new crackdown on illegally parked cars that clog midtown Manhattan streets. He said the city would seek to increase fines, reduce the number of spaces for diplomats' cars, use a forklift truck where a tow truck won't do, and - for the first time - issue points against drivers' licenses for illegal parking. In addition, the Mayor said the city would begin enforcing a regulation that requires taxicab drivers to pull within 12 inches of a curb when picking up or discharging passengers in midtown. A spokesman for the taxi industry said that drivers would try to abide by the regulation but that passengers were often the problem.

Inside, the vast windowless factory is eerily silent and clean. The dominant colors are pastel shades of purple, yellow and green. With only a soft crunch, a 1,500-ton Weingartner press transforms a sheet of steel into the recognizable shape of a car door. Mechanical hands wisk it away onto the production line where 150 robot-welding machines, swaying and snapping like giant praying mantises, gradually build it into another Corsa, General Motors' belated competitor for a share in Europe's important small-car market.