The higher the social class of other students the higher any given student's achievement.

Schools are successful only insofar as they reduce the dependence of a child's opportunities upon his social origins.

Children from a given family background, when put in schools of different social compositions, will achieve at quite different levels.

The educational resources provided by a child's fellow students are more important for his achievement than are the resources provided by the school board.

A child's learning is a function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher.

It is clear from all these data that the interests of teenagers are not focused around studies, and that scholastic achievement is at most of minor importance in giving status or prestige to an adolescent in the eyes of other adolescents.

The present structure of rewards in high schools produces a response on the part of an adolescent social system which effectively impedes the process of education.