3.2.2 How might tracking or ability-grouping be contributing to the puzzling situation?

Tracking or ability-grouping expose students differentially to curriculum and teachers (Borko & Eisenhart, 1986; Collins, 1986; Eder, 1981; Gamoran, 1987; Oakes, Gamoran, & Page, 1992). As a result, students in different groups have different opportunities for learning.

These practices also contribute to students' behavior and to their academic engagement or estrangement, which are further influenced by labeling processes, limited mobility between tracks or groups, and the differential distribution of students by socioeconomic status or ethnicity across tracks or groups (Oakes, Gamoran, & Page, 1992). High school students from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds or whose families are lower socioeconomic status are more likely to be assigned to lower tracks or groups; and, in a parallel manner, such students are under-represented in "gifted and talented" classes or programs.

Davidson's (1996) report of interviews with 55 students from three California high schools that had academic tracking (with European Americans and Asian youths disproportionately represented in the higher tracks) reported students' perspectives on the influences of tracking. Students said that the academic divisions in their schools contributed to the development of social divisions, to expectations about which groups would attend specific courses, and to their sense of social isolation. Students of color who were from groups with disproportionate representation in lower tracks felt culturally alienated in the "higher" academic courses. These factors contributed to students' academic estrangement (which manifested in reduced classroom participation and curtailed academic efforts) and led them to mask their ethnic identity.

Success Stories & CIP Studies Related to School Culture

Consider next question: 3.2.3
Gather information on this question: 4.2.2