The study examines how routine administrative decisions and actions affect a student's passage through high school and how labeling may produce additional deviance by cutting off access to legitimate resources and opportunities. The author argues that the social processes involved in schools' efforts to rid themselves of troublemakers may be one important but largely unacknowledged mechanism through which schools perpetuate the racial and class stratification of the larger society. Moreover, the disciplinary strategies that remove juveniles from school may have undesirable effects, because expelling or suspending troublemakers puts them on the street with nothing to do. On the other hand, there is some encouraging evidence that early intervention (e.g., preschool elementary school enrichment programs) can have positive benefits on school achievement and hence ameliorate later-life delinquency. Educational strategies that appear promising include individualized instruction, rewards that are attainable and clearly contingent on effort and proficiency, a goal-oriented work and learning emphasis, small school population, lower student-adult ratio, caring and competent teachers, and supportive administrators. 2 tables, 18 notes, and 47 references