This study identifies home environment factors that may contribute to children's academic achievement. The study involved observing and interviewing 59 families of a group of higher achieving and lower achieving fifth and sixth grade students of Puerto Rican descent residing in southeastern urban Pennsylvania. The following factors that may affect a child's achievement are discussed: (1) the child's degree of language proficiency as well as the everyday functional distribution of language; (2) the parents' educational aspirations for their child and the comparison of this measure to the child's chosen vocation; and (3) the levels of parental controlling strategies. Mini-case studies are presented to illustrate the differing family life situations. The results indicate that in the higher achievers' homes both Spanish and English are spoken, the parents always know the whereabouts of their child, and they have higher expectations for their child's educational achievement. In the homes of lower achievers Spanish is the preferred language, the parents had lower expectations of educational achievement, and they were either more permissive or extremely restrictive with their children. Structural variables such as socioeconomic status were less important than environmental factors in predicting academic achievement. Twenty-three references are included, along with three tables. (JS)