First published in 1998. This is Volume XVIII of twenty-eight in the Sociology of Education series. This study looks at the parity and prestige factors in English secondary school education and initially written in 1955. It looks at the desired aim of the secondary school as ensuring that every child receives the education most suited to his or her capacities and interests, irrespective of social class or occupational destiny, with the reality that some school may acquire prestige from the social standing either of the majority of his pupils or from the occupations for which they to be prepared.