Social Positions in Schooling

Abstract

In this article, the idea is developed that a track is a type of social position in students' relations with particular teachers and course work during their years of schooling. Using data from High School and Beyond, the authors derived eight curricular positions from an analysis of students' profiles of course work in high school. These curricular positions are associated with students' status characteristics (socioeconomic status, gender, and race) and attitudes (college plans and locus of control) and affect students' senior-year academic achievements net of their sophomore-year achievements, status characteristics, and sector (private versus public school attendance). The positive effects of private schools are explained by the curricular positions of their students, and there is a public school advantage with respect to science achievements for students in equivalent curricular positions.