The study found that a sense-of-belonging was linked to Latino students' academic adjustment and performance; specifically, a student's greater sense-of-belonging predicted fewer total absences from school, suggesting that a student who does not feel accepted in the school environment is more likely to not attend school. Although past research found that female adolescents tended to report a greater sense-of-belonging than male adolescents, the current study did not find a significant difference between boys and girls on sense-of-belonging; however, girls tended to have higher scores than boys on grade-point average and educational aspirations. The authors offer a number of possible reasons for these findings. Study participants were recruited from an urban, midwestern public high school with a student body that was 95 percent Latino. A total of 143 12th-grade students (52 percent female and 48 percent male) completed questionnaires that measured sense-of-belonging while at school, motivation for academic achievement, academic effort, and educational aspirations and expectations. Grade-point average and attendance data were obtained from school records. Means and standard deviations for all study variables were calculated, with bivariate Pearson correlations for variables conducted separately for males and females. Future research should focus on reasons for the difference in academic achievement between Latino males and females, which has been increasing over time. 4 tables and 35 references