January 14, 1984

Brooks Atkinson, the drama critic of The New York Times for 31 years, and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for foreign correspondence in 1947, died of pneumonia yesterday at Crestwood Hospital in Huntsville, Ala. He was 89 years old. Mr. Atkinson, who had been seriously ill since November, entered the hospital on Dec. 7. He had moved to Huntsville in 1981 from his farm in Durham, N.Y., to be near his family. Few men valued power less than he did. Yet his skill as an essayist, the scope of his erudition and the integrity of his standards made him, by common consent, the theater's most influential reviewer of his time.

Governor Cuomo will propose a $302 million increase in education aid in his budget next week, including funds for a score of programs to improve the quality of education, state officials said today. The new and expanded programs, totaling $100 million, are designed to help schools buy computer equipment, recruit and train teachers, improve libraries and discipline and reduce dropout rates and adult illiteracy. They would be paid for through a special fund containing proceeds from a sports-betting program proposed by Mr. Cuomo that is still under study. The Governor will propose a major revision in the way basic school aid is calculated. The revision would reduce aid by 2 percent to some relatively wealthy school districts, and increase it substantially in others.

A section of the United States Marine base here came under heavy rifle fire today, fighting broke out in downtown West Beirut and artillery shells exploded in the streets of East Beirut and in the nearby hills. It was one of the sharpest upsurges of violence in the Lebanese capital in months. The fighting came as Washington's special Middle East envoy, Donald Rumsfeld, was meeting in Damascus with President Hafez al- Assad and other Syrian officials about ways to overcome obstacles to a plan for the disengagement of the warring factions in Lebanon. Neither Syrian nor American officials would discuss the details of the talks.

President Reagan has determined that the Soviet Union has committed ''violations or probable violations'' of some terms of several arms control agreements or obligations, a senior State Department official said today. In a briefing for reporters, the official said that despite these instances of Soviet failure to live up to agreements, ''the President has not concluded that we should give up our search for serious arms control agreements.'' The President's determination came after a months-long study that was ordered by Congress after some conservative members disclosed possible Soviet failures to live up to agreements. A Major U.S. Effort The announcement of the results of the study came as the Administration prepared a major effort to convince Soviet leaders and the public in the United States and Western Europe that it is sincere in trying to reach new accords with Moscow despite the chill in relations.

''People kept saying, 'Look at that, Christmas lights on Charlotte Street,' '' said Irma Rivera, smiling at the thought of passers-by staring at the lighted tree in her yard. ''No one believed it. They'd come back for a second look. For the South Bronx, this was a miracle.'' So, too, for Mrs. Rivera, her husband, David, and their 16-month-old daughter, Anita. They are the first family to move into one of the 90 ranch- style houses being built in the South Bronx, a neighborhood that had come to represent all that was wrong with American cities.