Effects of sex, ethnicity and their interaction on initial status and year-long change in (1) Language Arts and Social Studies achievement; (2) attitude toward school, and (3) self-rated coping were examined. Subjects included 1657 sixth graders from 51 classes in Austin, Texas. Each class was comprised of a mixture of Anglos, Blacks, and Chicanos in the same proportions as in the Austin community as a whole. Analysis of the attitudes and coping measures included all students, but the Social Studies data included only 41 classes, and the Language Arts data included 10 classes. Achievement was measured by the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS); attitude by the School Sentiment Index (SSI); and coping by the Student Sentence Completion (SSC-C). Initial differences due to sex and ethnicity were assessed for each of the measures, and used to predict change in the students' scores. Results indicated that sex differences for all measures existed initially or emerged by the end of the year, and that ethnic differences were consistently found in a achievement. No sex by ethnicity interactions were obtained. (Author/RL)