The Middle College High School, an experimental school at La Guardia Community College (New York) which incorporates the last three years of high school and the first two years of college, was designed for adolescents of average ability but deficient computational and communication skills. Remediation was viewed as a social as well as instructional process; the remedial strategy involved academic and personal counseling and basic skills instruction in a small, personal setting. This study was designed to isolate and analyze the remedial aspects of the program's social structure and functions. Participant observation data were collected over a three-semester period, focusing on instructional methods and content, motivating devices and failure management techniques, counseling patterns, discipline management, and interface between the Middle College and the college. Interviews were also conducted with staff and samples of students. The data indicated that the strongest component of the program was its small size and that the college environment facilitated student motivation, but that the counseling component fell somewhat short of its potential due to teacher/counselor uncertainty over non-traditional role expectations. The overall impact of basic skills instruction was found to rank behind that of size, setting, and counseling. (JDS)