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Annotated Bibliography

In what ways can academic tracking set up students for the successes and failures of future

academic and/or vocational opportunities?

Kaitlyn Collins

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1103H

October 6, 2019
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Annotated Bibliography

Fisher, Kim W., and Karrie Shogren. “The Influence of Academic Tracking on Adolescent

Social Networks.” ​SAGE Journals​, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 89-100, 4 Dec. 2015,

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0741932515616758. Accessed 6 Oct. 2019

In this academic journal, the researchers evaluated the correlation of social opportunities to

the specific academic tracks students were put on. The researchers are both professors at

universities and are contributed to collaborating on multiple academic journals on ​SAGE,

which is one of the biggest academic journal publishers in the world. This research was just

published almost four years ago so the conclusions are still relevant to today’s current

trends. They compared students in special education, general, and accelerated courses to

see if their environment and courses they took had any social effects on students. They

chose to review two high schools with similar standards of grouping in their tracks, with

levels zero and one representing special education students and levels eight and nine as

advanced placement or accelerated course students. Almost 300 students participated and

were surveyed on social inclusiveness based on personal and environmental factors, as well

as social activity to understand the amount of social capital each group has. It was proven

that special education students hadn’t built an ego network whereas their peers in higher

levels spoke more to friends and are involved in more formal and informal activities in and

outside of school. The study only specifies whether students had an Individualized

Education Program but doesn’t specify the disability students had, which could include

social anxiety or disorders that complicate conversing with other students. If one accrues

higher social capital, they are more likely to receive more education and employment
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offers, have a healthier physical and mental self, and an overall higher sense of well-being.

In my paper, I can use this research to demonstrate that students in less challenging

academic tracks can suffer from not only educational deficits, but social ones as well.

Placing students in these groups may help students excel or in their courses, but it can also

damage other students future academic and professional outcomes after K-12 schooling.

Kohli, Sonali. “Modern-Day Segregation in Public Schools.” ​The Atlantic,​ Quartz, 21 Nov.

2014,

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/11/modern-day-segregation-in-public-

schools/382846/. Accessed 6 Oct. 2019

This article depicts how academic tracking has led to racial and ethnic segregation in

education over the past few decades, and what educational leaders want to do to try and fix

problems surrounding tracking and race. This article comes from a very respectable

newspaper and provided a background of academic tracking by discussing cases of

segregation with a student in a school district. One example talked about how an African

American girl was denied from taking an advanced math class; she had the grades and test

scores needed, but the teacher didn’t recommend her. The parent of this child discusses

how economic status isn’t a factor in this school- it’s race. The parents went to the ACLU

to file a lawsuit, and eventually the district entered a resolution agreement with the U.S.

Department of Education to advise on how to make a more even playing field in their

schools. The author has written several editorial pieces in a partnership with this newspaper

on hot topic discussions in education such as teacher pay and curriculum changes in

America. When writing this article, the author pulled in sources from other newspapers and
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the U.S. Department of Education so readers could see where they got their information

from and showcased both positive and negative views on this issue. The article talks about

how trying to reduce or diminish academic tracking will be difficult due to differentiating

districts foundations and experiences among their varying demographics and problems. In

this piece, the writer discusses teachers’ feelings on separating students as well as solutions

so students have more opportunities to decide what track they’re placed on. Even though all

teachers want their students to succeed, it’s often easier for them to execute that if you have

students who learn in similar ways in order to teach effectively and move through

curriculum. This article illustrates what’s been going on in our educational system for

decades and evaluates opinions on how to resolve it. I can use this article to describe how

there are racial ties related to academic tracking outside of income levels. This article gives

me specific cases of discrimination and how parents and students have fought for equality,

as well as what school districts and the Department of Education does in response. This

article also gave an example of how removing testing standards and letting students pick

their challenges might help students not feel trapped in their tracks and let them decide

what they want to get out of their education.

Ansell, Susan. “Achievement Gap.” ​Education Week​, Editorial Projects in Education, 7 Jul.

2011, https://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/achievement-gap/. Accessed 13 Oct. 2019

This article explains what the achievement gap means and how it has placed boundaries in

the classroom and relates to academic tracking. The website that produced this article is a

highly respected editorial-based magazine and news website started in the Sputnik era to

analyze the current problems in K-12 education. They take research on students and
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describe how it’s affecting classrooms and how we can fix the challenges facing our

education system. The author of this article wrote several pieces for the magazine about

special education, school choice, homeschooling, and more. The writer describes how No

Child Left Behind’s focus was to close achievement gaps by categorizing test scores by

student characteristics to understand how each group was performing under instruction.

While there is some improvement in African American and Hispanic test scores, there is

still a wide margin (about a 20 point difference) that separates them from white students’

scores. This article breaks down how many high school credits are earned by each group

and follows into high school graduation rates and probability in their success in college.

Even though minority groups are taking more courses in high school in general with most

taking more academic classes, white students primarily took the more rigorous courses

provided. Despite federal regulations being placed on districts assuring that students living

in poverty had higher chances of graduating on time, there was still a gap reported between

white and Hispanic students. While the article is dated farther back in time, I can use this

article to compare data founded today and see if we’ve bridged the gap any in the past

decade. The author talks about previous assumptions about achievement gaps that have

been debunked; however, this could show that maybe people have stuck with the

assumption instead of trying to change why it exists. This report ties into the recurring

theme that race and ethnicity are a big factor in testing outcomes and beyond. The article

also touches on socioeconomic status as a contributing factor, as well as public school

funding (or lack thereof) can have an impact on academic achievements. Although

educators and educational professionals are finally starting to make changes revolving
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around academic tracking, this article places incidents of recognition; this gives me

leverage and shows how difficult it is to make a widespread change in education if it isn’t

agreed upon or issued by the federal government.

Anh’s comment:
- Do we need to put them in alphabetical order?
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