Academic Tracking Research Articles

Early Adolescents’ Aspirations and Academic Tracking: An Exploratory Investigation

Early adolescents make early career decisions in the form of curriculum choices for high school, and these choices can influence future postsecondary education and career paths. This exploratory study examined relationships between school and demographic variables and 522 eighth graders’ choices of high school academic tracks. Analysis of variance and chi-square analyses identified statistically significant relationships between curricular choices and various school and demographic variables. The potential for aspiration gaps and implications for school counselor educational and career planning are discussed.

Academic differentiation, school achievement and school violence in the USA and South Korea

Whilst school violence is a major public concern and a focus of educational reforms both in the USA and South Korea, few studies have comparatively examined the rates of school violence and school factors associated with them. Analysing nationally‐representative data from eighth graders, their mathematics teachers and principals in 150 South Korean schools and in 216 US schools, the authors found that: 1) the rates of school violence are higher in the US than South Korea, 2) student‐reported violence rates are not associated with school‐reported violence rates in both nations and 3) South Korean schools with academic tracking and low‐achieving US schools are more likely to have higher rates of school violence. Policy and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Evidence on the returns to secondary vocational education

Vocational education in high schools has frequently been stigmatized as an anachronistic, dead-end path for students. We use data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988 to examine claims that students on a vocational track would benefit from a more academically rigorous education. Clearly, selection bias confounds attempts to untangle the effects of academic tracking on income after high school. Using an econometric framework that accounts for this bias, we find evidence of comparative advantage in tracking.

Communicating across cultures: discursive challenges and racial identity formation in narratives of middle school students

This article examines the ways in which discourse and social context lead to identity construction in relationships between Black and White students in a large (Grades 6–8) urban middle school. Looking at issues of cross‐cultural communication through focus group discussions among Grade 8 students at this school provides an opportunity for the emergence of three dominant themes in the social lives of these students including cafeteria seating preferences along racial lines and how this dynamic influences cultural understandings, academic tracking practices and their effects on relationships among the young people in this study, and the positioning of students by commonly accepted stereotypes. Ways to achieve greater understanding across racial boundaries are discussed and implications are drawn for promoting critical counter‐discourses that oppose deterministic and one‐dimensional representations between adolescents.

Les effets directs et indirects des stéréotypes sociaux sur une décision d'orientation scolaire

Middle-school teachers had to make decisions about the academic tracking of ninth-grade students whose social class (upper-middle vs. underprivileged) was experimentally induced. Stereotypical information about the student's family background was given either directly or indirectly. The results showed that a student from a well-off home was more often oriented towards a college-prep curriculum than a student from an underprivileged home, and symmetrically, an underprivileged student was more often oriented towards vocational school than a well-off student. However, these decisional differences were only observed when the stereotypical information about the student's social class was given indirectly, i.e. in such a way that the subject was unaware of its impact.

The Physical Activity Participation–Academic Performance Relationship Revisited: Perceived and Actual Performance and the Effect of Banding (Academic Tracking)

This study examined the relationship between academic performance and physical activity participation using objective measures of scholastic achievement, and the effect of banding (academic tracking). The sample comprised 1,447 students (aged 13–17 years) in secondary grades 2, 4, and 6 (736 boys; 711 girls). Academic records were collected from the schools, and a participation questionnaire was administered to the students. School banding was found to be a significant predictor of participation time, and students from higher-banded schools had generally greater participation time than lower-band students. Conversely, perceived academic performance and potential tended to be higher for students with more participation time in physical activity, particularly so for the males. However, for actual academic grades this positive association was not found when banding was taken into consideration. No relationship was found for the middle- and high-band students, while a slight negative relationship was observed for the low-band students.

An Extension of the Propensity Score Adjustment Method for the Analysis of Group Differences in MIMIC Models

This article proposes an extension of the propensity score adjustment method to latent variable models. The propensity score was proposed by Rosenbaum and Rubin (1983) as a means of balancing treatment and control groups with respect to observed covariates in non-randomized studies. The propensity score is defined as the conditional probability of assignment to a treatment group given a set of observed covariates. In a typical application of this approach, each observation is associated with a propensity to be assigned to the treatment group. The distribution of propensity scores is then divided into strata and analyses of treatment group differences are conducted within strata. Comparisons of treatment group differences within and across strata provide evidence for whether or not the bias due to non-random selection into treatment groups has been accounted for by the propensity score adjustment. This article extends the application of the propensity score approach to the analysis of group differences on latent variables. In particular, multi-sample MIMIC modeling is utilized to test hypotheses about treatment group differences on latent variables across strata. The role of factorial invariance as it relates to the approach advocated in this article is also discussed. An application to the problem of academic tracking differences in self-concept and locus-of-control, using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (National Center for Education Statistics, 1988), illustrates the procedure.

Changes in pedagogy: a qualitative result of teaching heterogeneous classes

This is a study of an urban school in the United States that decided to eliminate academic tracking in selected classes for students, aged 14–16 yr, in the sciences and social studies. Studies were taught in heterogeneous classes using cooperative learning methods. Our observations and analyses indicated changes in pedagogy and attitude among the teachers including the following: more student-centered, interactive classes, greater higher order questioning and critical thinking on the part of both teachers and students, and more enjoyment of the teaching and learning processes. We discuss our observations in the context of teacher development.

Tracking and Students' Friendships

We investigate the means by which academic tracking influences students'friendship choices. We argue that the link between tracking and friendship choice is due to three dyadic bases of interpersonal attraction: propinquity, similarity, and status. Our results suggest that track placements affect friendship choices by encouraging more interaction within tracks, by causing a greater similarity among students within tracks, and because tracks are a generally recognized status hierarchy among students. Our results also indicate that these influences interact; the effects of propinquity, similarity, and status each depend on the level of the other two factors.

Reculturing Middle Schools for Meaningful Change

For the past 25 to 30 years much effort has been expended in changing programs and practices in middle level schools to better meet the needs of young adolescent learn ers. The importance of these changes was reemphasized in Turning Points: Preparing American Youth for the 21st Century, the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development's (1989) report on the of young adolescents, which stated that a fundamental transformation of the educa tion of young adolescents is urgently required (p. 36). Middle school transformations have focused on providing school settings that are responsive to the developmental characteristics of young adolescents. Great Transitions: Preparing Adolescents for a New Century is the final report of the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development (1996) focusing on middle schools. It has emphasized the need for developmental ly appropriate schools that are small and safe, that pro mote cooperative learning, and that play down academic tracking. The need to offer primary health care services in or near the school is also recommended. In fact, the National Middle School Association (1995), in its revised edition of This We Believe states that the concept of developmental responsiveness lies at the heart of mid dle level education (p 5). Since This We Believe was first released in 1982, the National Middle School Association has had a widespread impact on the of young adolescents. While maintaining the same rationale for middle schools, NMSA decided that because recent developments in learning theory and in the practice of middle level schools have been extensive, This We Believe should be revisited and updated to more fully articulate the Association's beliefs on the brink of the 21st century. Aside from acknowledging societal changes such as redefined family structures and the increased incidences of family and community partnerships, the characteris tics of developmentally responsive middle level schools have remained virtually the same: 1. Educators committed to young adolescents. 2. A shared vision. 3. High expectations for all. 4. An adult advocate for every student. 5. Family and community partnerships. 6. A positive school climate.

The Promise of Brown and the Reality of Academic Grouping: The Tracks of my Tears

So take a good look at my face. You'll see my smile looks out of place. If you look closer, it's easy to trace The tracks of my tears. (Robinson, Tarplin, & More, 1969)INTRODUCTIONSchoolchildren in 1994 should know that in 1954 laws and policies that once kept generations in chains and allowed self-interest to be enshrined above moral principles finally opened a path toward justice and equality for African Americans. Our children should also know that the legal decision that sparked a quiet revolution in public elementary and secondary educational equity celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. The case that brought this profound change is, of course, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954).In Brown, the Supreme Court unanimously recognized that de jure segregation of school children by race, even if the facilities and other tangibles were equal, deprives them of equal educational opportunity. Brown's continuing moral suasion still inspires rich discussions of its significance (see, for example, Klarman, 1994; Tushnet, 1991, 1994). However, while Brown helped remove legally sanctioned barriers to educational equality, subsequent policies allowing academic tracking and ability grouping drew new boundaries to stifle African Americans as they sought to realize their full potential in school and life. In addition, the reality of race and education today has taken a profound and ironic twist: when remedies are proposed to overcome unfair allocations and address inequitable outcomes in education and society in general, racism receives only fragments of attention. To address and change inequitable grouping patterns, educators, administrators, and policy makers must first acknowledge that persistent racism is rooted in society's settled attitudes toward African Americans as a whole.This article revisits the high expectations for equal educational opportunities, equitable utilization of resources, and positive results through societal advancement that many African Americans felt at the time of Brown. Reflecting on several historical dynamics associated with the education and socialization of the majority of African Americans in our nation's public schools, it focuses specifically on three matters: academic tracking as a barrier to academic advancement, equity of human and material resources as a myth, and equality of educational opportunity as an elusive goal. Of these three, academic tracking is the primary focus. Indeed, few educational issues evoke as much debate and concern as the perennial use of academic tracking and ability grouping (Harris, Ford, Brown, & Carter, 1990) and continued practice of assigning students to classes based on assessments of academic ability (Adler, 1982; Goodlad, 1984; Slavin & Braddock, 1993). Thus, this article examines the antecedents of academic tracking and ability grouping in America and reviews the justification for these concepts in public school settings. In light of Brown, it advances a rationale supporting further efforts to dismantle these grouping practices and thereby end the negative impact they have on African Americans.OUT-OF-PLACE SMILES, INVISIBLE TEARSThroughout the South and in some parts of the Midwest four decades ago, African American and White students could not, by law, attend the same school, ride the same bus, or even share the same water fountain. This was the reality of Crow, or the form of American apartheid that became law following the United States Supreme Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). With Jim Crow's demise, Brown became an occasion for much celebration among African Americans subjected to the policies based on and upheld by the fallacious doctrine of separate but equal. Jubilation over Brown arose spontaneously and collectively as African Americans anticipated their fair share of the educational and economic opportunities that previously had been reserved for White Americans only. …

Student Views of the School Nurse's Role in a Secondary School Condom Availability Program

In Massachusetts, the school committee of a Boston suburb's school board agreed to start a condom availability program at the community's 2 high schools. A nurse researcher conducted 11 focus groups with 112 students to determine students' attitudes and feelings, so they can be incorporated in designing the program. Most students were White, college-bound, and professional-class. The nurse grouped most students by age, gender, and academic tracking into homogeneous groups. A common thread throughout the discussions was a need for respect from adults. Every focus group talked a lot about the risk of humiliation and loss of respect of adults if they took condoms. Students suggested that they would not use the program if it required individual counseling. Overall, the students were concerned about the school nurse's role in safer sex counseling. Sexually active females conveyed a positive relationship with the school nurse, however. The lack of consistent nursing staff contributed to students' doubts about building a relationship with the nurse. Students clearly identified an adult with whom they could feel comfortable talking about sexual matters as someone who would be relaxed, nonjudgmental, knowledgeable, and available for discussion. Based on these findings, the nurse researcher recommended that school nurses have more time to enhance skills in effective and sensitive sexuality counseling and devote more time to counseling and HIV prevention education. She also suggested that schools include more parent and student sexuality education. Developmentally appropriate HIV prevention education should be provided to all students in both junior and senior high schools each year. Final recommendations were intensive inservice education for school nurses, anonymous condom availability, and identification of other school and community personnel to support school nurses.

Secondary School Tracking and Educational Inequality: Compensation, Reinforcement, or Neutrality?

This article examines the effects of academic tracking in secondary schools on educational stratification and considers how that tracking may affect levels and dispersions of academic achievement and high school graduation rates among social groups. Data from the High School and Beyond survey of students who were sophomores in 1980 show that placement in the college track substantially benefits growth in mathematics achievement and the probability of high school graduation, even when measured and unmeasured sources of nonrandom assignment to tracks are taken into account. Track assignment reinforces preexisting inequalities in achievement among students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. However, track assignment and differential achievement in tracks partially compensate blacks and girls for their initial disadvantages and makes racial and sexual inequalities smaller than they may have otherwise been. The article provides qualified support for the view that students are assigned to the tracks that provide the greatest reward to their measured background characteristics.

Relationship between academic tracking and the degree of interethnic acceptance.

Relationship between academic tracking and the degree of interethnic acceptance.

Relationship between academic tracking and the degree of interethnic acceptance.

Relationship between academic tracking and the degree of interethnic acceptance.

America through Africa and Asia

“A pedigree bloodhound for scenting out Negroana” was what I was called twenty years ago by Cedric Dover, a Eurasian writer unduly neglected today. I am content to accept his verdict on my pursuit of Afro-American and African studies, aldiough there is, perhaps, a little too much of Harriet Beecher Stowe's running dogs in the imagery for my liking and his statement seems to imply that I have spent all of my academic life tracking down disappearing black men and women in the dismal swamp of the past. It is true that I am never happier than when I have brought to light a forgotten figure with African ancestry. But my interests in Africa and America have ramified into other areas, especially into Scotland, at home and abroad; and I have spent some of my researches following Scottish themes. Yet, even here, continental and inter-cultural connections multiply, as the letter from Cedric Dover which I have quoted indicates. We were in correspondence about Robert Duncanson (1817–1872), a pioneer of Afro-American art: “a Scots Canadian mulatto born in New York State,” most of whose later life was spent in Europe, “where classical tradition took him to Italy and paternal tradition to Scotland,” whose “feeling of superiority … caused him to reject the Negro people and identify himself” with his father's country.