Unmet Goals of Tracking: Within-track Heterogeneity of Students’ Expectations about the Future

Abstract

Over the last two decades, researchers in the educational field have raised concerns regarding the high educational expectations among American youth. Studies have identified the detracking movement as one of the most important causes of this college-for-all norm. The assumption is that tracked secondary education systems, in contrast to comprehensive systems, lead to realistic expectations because of students’ clear track placement. In other words, tracking creates groups of students with homogeneous expectations. Inspired by the rich literature on the unequal selection present in tracked systems, this article questions this assumption concerning students’ allocation. We examine homogeneity of expectations in a rigidly tracked system, using data from 2,354 students in 28 schools (2013–2014) in Ghent (Belgium). Results from ordinary least squares (OLS) regression show that even in a stringently tracked system, the vocational track has the lowest homogeneity of expectations. We discuss the unmet goals of tracking in view of tracking policy.

High school never ends. Normative and comparative peer group effects on higher education outcomes through the school-level students’ expectation culture

“…Despite the high expectations of some students in vocational tracks in tenth grade (Van den Broeck, Demanet and Van Houtte, 2018), none of them attend university five years later. Our findings, thus, contradict the popular notion that tracking provides clear futures for their students (Rosenbaum, 2001).…”

What Has High School Got to Do With It? High School Composition, Structures, and College Enrollment

“…Our results, therefore, do not imply that school-wide social capital does not affect composition effects in separation models, rather it suggests that school composition and school-wide social capital is structured by tracks. In the Flemish educational system, which is characterized by between-school tracking, low-SES schools are in essence schools that offer technical or vocational tracks (Van den Broeck et al, 2018). Additionally, track position is subjected to processes of social inequality (Boone & Van Houtte, 2013).…”

“…On average, students were 19.30 (SD= 0.65) years old. Students whose maternal grandmothers were born in Belgium were considered natives (85.8%), whereas maternal grandmothers born abroad (non-Belgian) were considered ethnic minorities (14.3%) (see also (Van den Broeck, Demanet, & Van Houtte, 2018).…”

A search for the determinants of students’ educational expectations for higher education in four European cities: The role of school SES composition and student engagement

“…Matějů et al, 2007). Tracking serves as a sorting machine that directs students into different postsecondary pathways, ensuring that expectations are more realistic (Buchmann and Park, 2009; for nuance: Van den Broeck et al, (2018)). However, more social inequality in educational expectations is found in highly differentiated systems (Parker et al, 2016), because early selection gives rise to more social inequality in educational choices (Gamoran, 2001).…”