High School Effects on Achievement* Robert M. Hauser William H. Sewell The University of Wisconsin, Madison Duane F. Alwin Indiana University For the past 15 years, sociologists have actively been working to identify. measure, and interpret the effects of schools on aspirations and achieve- ments. Paradoxically, social science interest in school effectiveness gained in intensity and scope in the aftermath of the publication of Equality of Educational Opportunity (Coleman, Campbell, Hobson, McPartland, Mood, Weinfeld, and York, 1966). That massive study found that American public schools are remarkably homogeneous in resources and in educational outcomes, while there remain unacceptably large differentials among the achievements of major racial and socioeconomic groups. These broad conclusions appear to stand despite the challenges posed by systematic critical review and by further research (Mosteller and Moynihan, 1972; Jencks, Smith, Acland, Bane, Cohen, Gintis, Heyns, and Michelson, 1972; Averch, Carroll, Donaldson, Kiesling, and Pincus, 1972). If schools do make a difference, the causative factors may be macro- social. as in variable length of temporal exposure to schooling (Wiley. Chapter 8 of this volume). Alternatively, the systematic variation in * Prepared for the meetings of the American Sociological Association, Montreal, Quebec, August 1974. The research reported herein was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, U. S. Public Health Service (M-6275) and from the American College Testing Program.