This book is about education in Burgherside, a low-income neighborhood in Stockton, California, the majority of whose residents are blacks and Mexican-Americans: They make up about 92% of the elementary school population. The study reported here probes into the reasons for many children from the neighborhood failing in public schools. The goal was to study how the people in Stockton, including Burghersiders, conceptualize their educational system and their place in it, and how these conceptualizations influence the way they behave within the institution. The author spent a total of 21 months (September 1968 to May 1970) doing the study. He lived in Stockton during the first 16 months and then visited the city every other week for interviews lasting 2-3 days. The research covered the following setments of the community: (a) Burghersiders; (b) residents of adjoining neighborhoods attending the same junior and senior high schools with Burghersiders; (c) organizations and leadership representing the interests of the subordinate minorities in the wider community; (d) school personnel; (e) taxpayers, principally the middle-class Stocktonians and the organizations they formed to assist with "problems" of Burghersiders and similar groups. (Author/JM)