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2002 - Sociodemographic Diversity, Correlated Achievement, and De Facto Tracking

Attribution: Lucas, Samuel R., & Berends, Mark
Researchers: Mark BerendsSamuel R. Lucas
University Affiliation: University of California, Berkeley; Notre Dame University
Email: lucas@demog.berkeley.edu
Research Question:
Assess impact of achievement and sociodemographic diversity for tracking
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Sociology of Education
Journal Entry: Vol. 75, No. 4, pp. 328-348
Year: 2002
Findings:
  • Diversity of student social backgrounds is a basis for de facto tracking.
  • More SES diversity is related to more de facto tracking.
  • SES diversity is associated with increased de facto tracking in math and English.
  • Analyzed alone, the incidence of racial diversity positively affects de facto tracking.
  • The presence of racial diversity is also positively associated with de facto tracking.
  • Controlling for prior achievement does not change the relationship. In private schools there was no association between SES and racial/ethnic diversity and de facto tracking.
Keywords: Academic AchievementEnglishMathRacial CompositionSESTrackingRegions: NationalMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: SurveyAnalysis Methods: Binomial Regression Model Sampling Frame:National
Sampling Types: RandomAnalysis Units: SchoolData Types: Quantitative-Longitudinal
Data Description:
  • Data are taken from the High School & Beyond base year (1980), first follow up (1982), student transcript (1983), and administrator and teacher surveys (1982). Sample is 948 schools.
  • Two analyses focus on placement in pairs of subjects. First analysis Subject A- math, Subject B- English. In the second analysis, Subject A and Subject B are any of the following: math, English, social studies, or science. Models are estimated separately for public and private schools. The purpose is to determine whether the proportion of students in the same level of courses is associated with school level factors (SES and racial/ethnic diversity).
  • DV: Number of students who took the same level of courses for two different subjects in the 11th grade.
  • IV: 10th grade: school racial/ethnic composition (presence of diversity measure) and racial dispersion (incidence of diversity measure), school size, sector urbanicity, mean SES, mean achievement, variance of achievement.
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation Abstracts
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