Educational Stratification

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Stratification in the Classroom
Is Tracking Necessary?
Is Tracking Unjust?
Resources

IMPORTANT FIGURES

Jonathan Kozol

Jonathan Kozol is an educator and social activist, known for his books that criticize stratification, racism and classism in education, such as Savage Inequalities and Death at an Early Age.

Bill Bigelow

Bill Bigelow is an educator and editor of the education reform journal Rethinking Schools. He is a strong advocate for detracking classrooms.

LINKS

Tracking: A Podcast by Jaimita Haskell

National Public Radio "Youth-Cast" highlighting a high school student in the general track and her struggle to enter the high track.

Ability Grouping in Elementary Schools

Analysis of ability grouping and its effects on students achievement levels.

Grouping Students for Instruction in the Middle Schools

Recent research on the positive and negative effects of ability grouping.

Closing the Achievement Gap by Detracking

Analysis of a detracking system that works by offering a high-track curriculum to all students.

The Tracking and Ability Grouping Debate

Justification of tracking and ability grouping, as long as it is properly applied so as not to malign students.

Does Ability Grouping Help or Hurt?

Advantages and disadvantages of stratification within the classroom.

Office for Civil Rights on Educational Stratification

Study of what types of stratification in schools are in accordance to Title VI laws.

National Association for Gifted Children on Ability Grouping

Argument in favor of an advanced college-preparatory track for gifted students.

McDonald's or IBM?

North Carolina eighth-graders are forced to choose one of four "pathways" that greatly impact their career plans.

Should Students Be Tracked in Math or Science?

Get the answer to the titular question.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Read the legislation for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for a better understanding of its demands for better education. 

Brown v. Board of Education (1955)

Learn more about Brown v. Board and its influence on desegregation.

Rethinking Schools

This site offers articles that explore many of the "hot topics" in education.  Also, the site provides a great list of other educational resources on the Web.

Equality & Education

Explore controversial issues involving education as The Equality & Education Project confronts classroom inequality, No Child Left Behind, as well as School Choice.

Teachers For Social Justice

Find out more about Teachers 4 Social Justice, a grassroots non-profit teacher development and support organization.

FOR FURTHER STUDY

Jeannie Oakes (2005): Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality

Samuel Lucas (1999): Tracking Inequality: Stratification and Mobility in American High Schools

Tom Loveless (1999): The Tracking Wars: State Reform Meets School Policy

Anne Wheelock (1994): Alternatives to Tracking and Ability Grouping

Cornelius Riordan (2003): Equality and Achievement: An Introduction to the Sociology of Education

Valerie Lee (2002): Inequality at the Starting Gate: Social Background Differences in Achievement as Children Begin School

Paul Willis (1981): Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs

Peter Cookson and Caroline Persell (1987): Preparing for Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools

RESOURCES
 

Bedsworth, W., Colby, S., & Doctor, J. (2006).  Reclaiming the American dream.  San Francisco:  The Bridgespan Group.

 

Berends, M. (1995).  Educational stratification and students’ social bonding to school. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 16 (3), 327-351.

 

Bigelow, B. (2007). Getting off the track: Stories from an untracked classroom. In W. Au, B. Bigelow & S. Karp (Eds.), Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice.  Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools, Ltd.  68-75.

 

Bigelow, B. (2007).  Testing, tracking, and toeing the line.  In W. Au, B. Bigelow & S. Karp (Eds.), Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice. Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools, Ltd.  68-75.

 

Byrne, B.M. (1990).  Self-concept and academic achievement: Investigating their importance as discriminators of academic track membership in high school.  Canadian Journal of Education, 15 (2), 173-181.

 

Delpit, L.D. (1988).  The silenced dialogue: Power and pedagogy in educating other people’s children.  Harvard Educational Review, 58 (3), 280-298.

 

Farkas, George (2000). Teaching Low-Income Children to Read at Grade Level. Contemporary Sociology. 29 (1), 53-62.

 

Finn, P.J. (1999). Literacy with an Attitude. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

 

Garet, M.S., & DeLany, B. (1988). Students, courses and stratification.  Sociology of Education, 61 (2), 61-77.

 

Harvard Law Review Association. (1989).  Teaching inequality: The problem of public school tracking.  Harvard Law Review, 102, 1318-1341.

 

Kozol, Jonathan (1992). Savage Inequalities. New York, NY: Harper Perennial.

 

Ladson-Billings, G. (2007). Culturally relevant teaching: Theory and practice.  In J. A.Banks & C. A. McGee Banks (Eds.), Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 221-245.

 

Loveless, T. (2005). The tracking and ability grouping debate.  In D. L. Evans (Ed.)  Taking Sides: Clashing Views of Controversial Issues in Teaching and Education. Dubuque, IA: McGraw Hill. 194-202. (Reprinted from Fordham Report by T. Loveless, 1998).

 

Lucas, S. R. (1999). Tracking Inequality: Stratification and Mobility in American High Schools. New York: Teachers College Press.

 

Mallery, J., & Mallery, J. (1999).  The American legacy of ability grouping: Tracking reconsidered.  Multicultural Education, 7, 13-15.

 

Oakes, J. S. (2005).  Limiting students’ school success and life chances: The impact of tracking.  In D. L. Evans (Ed.), Tacking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Teaching and Education.  Dubuque, IA: McGraw Hill. 203-208. (Reprinted from Contemporary Issues in Curriculum by J. S. Oakes, 1999, Allyn and Bacon.)

 

Orfield, G., & Lee, C. (2005).  Why segregation matters: Poverty and educational inequality.  Cambridge, MA:  Harvard Civil Rights Project.

 

Rubin, B.C. (2003).  Unpacking detracking: When progressive pedagogy meets students’ social worlds.  American Educational Research Journal, 40 (2), 539-573.

 

Trautwein, U., Lüdtke, O., Marsh, H.W., Köller, O., & Baumert, J. (2006).  Tracking, grading, and student motivation: Using group composition and status to predict self-concept and interest in ninth-grade mathematics.  Journal of Educational Psychology, 98 (4), 788-806.

Joshua Jocham
Julie Wojtowicz