This document presents the results of a major study of the relationship between elementary school social systems and educational outcomes. This research sought to identify factors associated with academic climate which could account for the variance in achievement levels in a random sample of Michigan elementary schools. The main hypothesis of the study was that the cultural or social psychological normative climate and the student status role definitions which characterized the school social system explain much of the variance in achievement and other behavioral outcomes of the school. The variables used to characterize the school social system include the following: social-economic status and racial composition, school personnel input, school social structure variables, and school climate variables. The outcome variables which are examined include the mean level of achievement in mathematics and reading at the fourth grade level, the mean self-concept of academic ability of the students and the mean self-reliance of the students. It is suggested that the most significant finding of this research is that the combination of the three sets of social system variables; social composition and other personnel inputs, social structure of the school, and the school climate, explain most of the variance between schools in all three of the dependent variables. An analysis of the relationship between the three sets of social system variables clearly demonstrates that two climate variables, the students' perception of others' present evaluations and expectations, explain most of the between school variance in mean self-concept of academic ability. The major contributor to the explanation of differences in mean self-reliance are the school climate variables. (Author/AM)