An overview of the preliminary findings of a large-scale longitudinal (1974-77) survey of the educational needs and social problems of immigrant students in Sydney, Australia, is presented in this report. Four findings are treated as most significant: (1) Differences among immigrants of different non-English-speaking background are so great that to pool them in a single category is often misleading. (2) In confirmation of previous studies, large numbers of students from non-English-speaking ethnic groups reject the "institutional ideology" of their school by clinging to high aspirations and staying at school despite a low level of performance as the school assesses it. (3) The theories of the "stunting" and "liberating" effects of immigration do not adequately explain the experiences of the students studied. (4) Because the survey stops at the point at which the students leave school, its results cannot be used to predict how the subjects will fare when they face employers and tertiary institutions. In view of these findings the educational system is called upon to break the dominance of the "institutional ideology" and to better serve children of low IQ and low socioeconomic status whom it now does its best to throw off. It is further recommended that resources be used to dislodge the explicit anti-immigrant prejudices of some schools, and that resources are also needed for monitoring and for further research. References and statistical data are appended. (KH)