The relative influence of scholastic achievement, intelligence, athletic ability, and ethnic origin on the formation of friendships among pupils in two Israel elementary schools was explored. The most important factor was found to be similar academic achievement, followed by intelligence and athletic achievement. (Authors/PP)

The extent to which schooling brings about change in the rank order of students along the hierarchies of intelligence is a pervasive sociological concern. Until quite recently the emerging consensus was that schooling is relatively ineffective in this regard and that intelligence is largely exogenous to the educational process. A study to…