The project entitled "A Study of Schooling" went to 7 regions in the U.S. to collect data on 13 widely representative elementary schools and the 25 junior and senior high schools they feed. School board members, administrators, 17,000 students, 8,500 parents, and 1,350 teachers were interviewed or responded to questionnaires. Over 1,000 classrooms were observed. Eight major findings from this study are discussed in this document: (1) the states substantially agree on a dozen major educational goals; (2) parents want schools to perform a caring, nurturing, custodial function in addition to providing instruction; (3) neither the states nor the districts studied clearly articulate their educational goals; (4) secondary school students have values, interests, and problems not mediated by home, school, or church; (5) shortcomings and inequities in the opportunities to gain a general education are encountered by children during their first days in school; (6) these inequities are increased in secondary schools by the allocation of teachers; (7) ability grouping and tracking lead to markedly different educational experiences at the secondary level for students of different backgrounds; and (8) the teachers sampled entered the profession for good reasons but encountered difficulties in using practices they believed in. (Author/PGD)