A group of 25 normal-hearing children aged 6 to 13 years was compared to a group of 25 children manifesting a unilateral hearing impairment of at least 45 dB HL. The two groups were matched on age, I.Q., socio-economic status, sex, and race. Thirty-two percent of the hearing-impaired children failed a grade in school, while none of the normal-hearing children failed. This group of children who failed in school exhibited verbal I.Q.s which were significantly lower than those children who succeeded in school. However, few differences were found between the two groups on a battery of standardized language tests.