Tracking Policies and Practices : School By School Summaries. A Study of Schooling in the United States. Technical Report Series, No. 25 / Jeannie Oakes.

In this report, the 25 secondary and 13 elementary schools participating in "A Study of Schooling" are described in two ways. First, the emphasis given to academics and vocational subjects in the curriculum is estimated and compared with that of the other schools at the same level. Second, tracking policies and practices at each of the schools are described. These school-by-school descriptions provide a look at one aspect of the schooling context: how students at schools were stratified and separated according to their abilities, achievement, or expectations for their futures. Information was gathered on five dimensions: (1) extent, the percentages of classes which were tracked at the school; (2) pervasiveness, the number of subject areas at the school which were tracked; (3) flexibility, whether students were tracked subject-by-subject or across more than one subject on the same criteria; (4) mobility, the amount of student movement among tracks and the direction of that movement; and (5) locus of control, the primary decision makers in student track placement. In describing the tracking policies in each of the secondary schools, an overview is presented, followed by descriptions of the extent and pervasiveness of tracking, student flexibility, and mobility within the system, the rationale offered for student grouping, and sample classes that fit into the tracking system. The 13 elementary schools were examined for the extent, pervasiveness, structure, and rationale of tracking. It was observed in the elementary schools that, while few classrooms were homogeneous, grouping for instructional purposes was almost always used to some extent. Tables are appended displaying the percentage of full time equivalent teachers in subject areas in the secondary schools, an estimate of the extent of tracking in the schools, and the percentage of tracked classes in the secondary school samples. (JD)

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