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The close relationship between the educational enterprise and national selfinterest was highlighted following Sputnik I. During this period high school dropouts and academic underachievement were given much attention. This attention resulted in reports, studies, and programs of high school organization, curriculum and counseling. Given no attention in the National Defense Education Act of 1959 and scant interest elsewhere except in the research literature is one crucial fact; namely, that the educational failures of secondzry students are often totally or partially due to unsatisfactory elementary school experience.The influence of the elementary school experience on high school performance is illustrated by the case of a high school junior of high average intelligence in serious academic difficulty. This student, who hoped to enter college, had obtained D'S and F'S in key high school subjects, and on tests of academic achievement this eleventh grade boy performed a t the seventh to eighth grade levels. The following quotations taken from this boy's cumulative record indicate that his history of academic difficulty was apparent long before he entered high school.