Student Tracking Research Paper

The basic concept of tracking is” Assigning students through instructional groups on basis of ability.” (Hallinan 188). Tracking is a very controversial topic concerning our education system today. Partly because as a country tracking and how it is implemented is determined at a local level. The initial reasoning behind tracking was to facilitate instruction and increase learning by tailoring teacher’s instructions to the level of their student’s ability, which should lead to higher academic achievement for those groups. But, tracking does not always accomplish the desired goals. Tracking often acts is a way to further perpetuate the vast inequality that exist in our society. Tracking implicitly rewards cultural capital and social capital, …show more content…
The solutions to these problems are by no means quick fixes, but they are all realistic solutions. The foundation of tracking has some positive points, but the way that tracking is implemented throughout schools needs retuning. First, schools need to put the precedence on all tracks, not just the lowest or the highest. So, all tracks can succeed and not just a few. Tracking often works for the higher tracks, because they have teachers whom are adamant about the subject they’re teaching, and have high expectations for students. While lower tracked students often are given low expectations, and are disengaged in the …show more content…
That negative stigma can cause students to have less confidence in school, resulting in unenthusiastic classrooms and low expectations from students, teachers, and parent. Finally, the most important problem to fix, is the initial track placement process if students are placed in the wrong tracks, the mistake can be detrimental to their academic and social growth. Instead of focusing so much on objective criteria (test scores, grades) the process should become more subjective. (counselor recommendations, parents/teacher