THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY WAS TO DETERMINE (1) WHETHER THREE DIFFERENT SOCIOECONOMIC GROUPS OF STUDENTS AND VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE TEACHERS PLACED DIFFERENT CONNOTATIVE MEANINGS ON CERTAIN WORDS AND PHRASES IMPORTANT IN VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE, AND (2) THE EXTENT TO WHICH TEACHERS RECOGNIZED DIFFERENCES EXISTING AMONG STUDENTS. PUPILS IN 21 ILLINOIS HIGH SCHOOLS WERE CLASSIFIED INTO THREE SOCIOECONOMIC GROUPS IN EACH OF FOUR HIGH SCHOOL GRADES BY USE OF THE SIMS SCI OCCUPATIONAL RATING SCALE. A STRATIFIED RANDOM SAMPLE OF 20 STUDENTS FROM EACH OF THE 12 STRATIFICATIONS AND 21 TEACHERS COMPLETED A SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL SCALE. MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE WAS USED TO TEST HYPOTHESES. GRADE LEVEL WAS NOT RELATED TO THE CONNOTATIVE RATING OF ANY OF THE 11 WORDS OR PHRASES. THE SOCIOECONOMIC LEVEL WAS RELATED TO CONNOTATIONS OF THE WORDS "LEADERSHIP" AND "COOPERATION.""LEADERSHIP" WAS VALUED MORE HIGHLY BY THE LOWER THAN THE UPPER SOCIOECONOMIC GROUP, AND "COOPERATION" WAS VALUED MORE HIGHLY BY THE MIDDLE THAN THE HIGHEST SOCIOECONOMIC GROUP. TEACHERS PREDICTED THE MEANING PUPILS PLACED ON THE WORDS AND PHRASES EQUALLY WELL FOR THE 12 SUBGROUPS AND WERE MORE IN AGREEMENT WITH THE MEANINGS WHICH JUNIORS AND SENIORS PLACED ON THE WORDS AND PHRASES THAN WITH THE MEANINGS FRESHMEN AND SOPHOMORES PLACED ON THEM. THIS ED.D. DISSERTATION WAS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. IT IS AVAILABLE AS 66-12381 FOR $3.00 ON MICROFILM AND FOR $6.80 AS XEROXED COPY FROM UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS, INC., 300 NORTH ZEEB ROAD, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN 48106. (JM)