Hallinan, Maureen T.
Researchers: Maureen T. Hallinan
University Affiliation: University of Notre Dame
Email: mhallina@nd.edu
Research Question:
Whether tracking students for instruction can have a differential effect on student achievement across schools.
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Social Forces
Journal Entry: Vol. 72, No. 3, pp. 99-820
Year: 1994
Findings:
- Track placement is influenced by characteristics of a school’s track structure, by assignment criteria, by flexibility of track membership, and by a school’s scheduling priorities.
- School differences occur in the number, size, and ability composition of track structures; these differences affect the likelihood of a student’s being assigned to a particular track.
- Background affects placement in a unique way in each school, likely reflecting a constellation of within school factors influencing placement decisions.
- Findings provides evidence of school differences in tracking practices.
- Schools differ in the likelihood of assigning a student to a particular track level.
- The stronger the association between track assignment and student outcomes, the greater the importance and impact of school differences in placement practices.
- Observed differences across schools in the quantity and quality of instruction illustrate how schools vary in the opportunities for learning that they provide to students within tracks.
- Ninth grade track placement has a statistically significant effect on students’ growth in achievement.
- Tracking is a more effective pedagogical device in some schools than in others for certain categories of students in certain subject areas.
- Findings demonstrate that assignment to a higher track generally increases rate of learning, and that track effects are stronger in some schools than others. Thus, the practice of tracking is more inequitable in some schools than in others.
- Student’s abilities and interests should be a primary consideration in determining what school would best advantage that student.
- Tracking information is critical to an informed decision about schools, and educators have a responsibility to make it available to the public.