The study reported here was directed at an identification and analysis of characteristics related to secondary school dropout or graduation that are evident in the sixth grade. Subjects used in this investigation were 1090 white males--307 dropouts and 783 graduates; 1100 white females--200 dropouts and 900 graduates; 166 Negro males--69 dropouts and 97 graduates; and, 129 Negro females--56 dropouts and 73 graduates. Subjects were drawn from a larger cohort of 4075 students that comprised the total regular enrollment of a county school system in the sixth grade in 1954. Multiple correlation analyses were performed with 21 measures available in school records in the sixth grade. These variables were correlated with the criterion of subsequent withdrawal or graduation from high school. Analyses were conducted separately for each of four race and sex groups and for the four groups combined. Although different patterns of variables were found to differentiate dropouts and graduates in the race and sex subgroups, there was a general similarity across all samples in that one or two measures of achievement or ability, age in the sixth grade which was considered to be predominantly a measure of school retention, absence, and one or two measures of family background appeared in each of the four samples. (Author/JM)