"Eckert's thesis is that the public high school is based on middle-class values, emphasizes college preparatory programs, and rewards those students who adjust to school hierarchical patterns; a dissonance is thus created in students from working-class backgrounds (the 'burnouts'), resulting in maladjustment and alienation from school. Students from middle-class backgrounds (the 'jocks'), on the other hand, adjust to the high school culture and successfully complete the school program." (Readings) Bibliography.