Research was conducted to determine the educational status orientations of a sample of Mexican American boys and girls living in low-income rural areas of Texas, and to compare the results by sex with educational status orientations of a similar sample of Anglo American boys and girls. Informational responses from a sample of 290 male and 306 female Mexican American high school sophomores attending school in 4 South Texas counties was obtained in 1967. Comparable data were obtained in 1966 from 143 male and 131 female Anglo sophomores in 3 East Central Texas counties. A chi-square test was selected as the method of analyzing the data. It was concluded that boys and girls from both ethnic groups aspired to high educational goals, supporting a proposition by the sociologist Robert Merton that patterned inculcation of high success goals approximates a culture universal in American society. A related document is RC 000 984. (VM)