The aim of this research was to determine the relative importance of certain variables for different social classes in the formation of positive attitudes toward school and school work. In the first study, complete data were obtained from 884 third-year junior school pupils in 28 schools located throughout England. Attitude toward school was defined in two ways. The pupil's attitude toward school was examined first in terms of his general feelings about the school and school work, and second in terms of his degree of motivation in doing well at school. Measures of both these attitudes were obtained from pupil-completed questionnaires. Thirteen variables were selected from the existing data for a stepwise regression analysis. The two most crucial variables were found to be importance of doing well and teacher relationship. The aim of the second study was to examine for each social class the relative importance of certain home and school variables for academic success. The data collected in the first study was again utilized. The problem, being a multivariate one, was investigated by means of stepwise regression analyses, which were carried out using criterion variables: the child's achievement at the end of the third junior year, and the child's progress score according to the composite scores obtained at the end of his second and third junior school years. (Author/JM)