Abstract
This chapter uses data from 58 eighth-grade English classes in the midwestern United States to study between-track differences in literature achievement. The main purpose of this chapter is to learn whether achievement gaps between tracks can be attributed to variation in the quality of instruction. Indicators of instructional quality included a composite measure of the quality of instructional discourse, and survey and observational measures of student participation in schoolwork. The analyses, using a hierarchical linear modeling approach, yielded three main results: (1) Achievement differences between tracked and untracked schools were not statistically significant. (2) Within the tracked schools, high-track students scored considerably higher, and low-track students lower, than their counterparts in middle or “regular” classes. (3) About a quarter of the high-track advantage and over a third of the low-track disadvantage could be attributed to differences in the quality of instruction and participation in the different types of classes.
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