Tracking in secondary education: An educational injustice

Abstract

Secondary education schools in the United States routinely distribute differential educational provisions to students through a widely implemented tracking system. This article aims to show that this tracking system is unjust. It begins with a characterization of the tracking system as it is typically implemented in the United States, and its connection to distributive justice issues. The author then begins formulating an autonomy-based educational equality theory which is based on a conception of distributive justice requiring equal consideration of persons with reference to their needs. The greatest need of late adolescents in secondary education is the development of the capacities necessary for the exercise of autonomy. Adolescents in secondary education should, therefore, be given equal opportunities for the development of autonomy. Tracking in secondary education is proscribed because it violates the autonomy of late adolescents. In addition, taking the aim of autonomy in secondary education seriously requires postponing vocational choices until tertiary education.