School motivation and achievement for an individual is the product of a complex set of interacting goals, goals which may be more or less significant to individuals from different cultural backgrounds. This paper describes a project which examines the nature of goals held by students from different cultural groups, the compatibility of these goals with goals promoted by classrooms and schools, and the impact these goals have on student achievement, motivation, and school retention. It is argued that ethnic minority children hold values and goals compatible with effective school learning within western school settings, but that many fail to be effectively socialized by the school and their community as effective learners within that setting. Participants in this study were drawn from 12 high schools in New South Wales; a large high school on a Navajo Reservation in the United States; and a small rural school, roughly equivalent to a high school, on the Betsiamite Reservation in Canada. Attachments include items comprising scales drawn from Confirmatory Factor Analyses of the Inventory of School Motivation, an instrument used in the study; a table of predictor variables, and an Interview Schedule. (Contains 37 references.) (Author/MAH)