Tracking students starts primarily in middle school and continues throughout high school. Test scores and IQ help determine the level of classes into which a student is placed, but some districts use attendance and discipline records to help make placement decisions. Students are tracked into three levels. The top track prepares students to attend top-tier universities. The middle track steers students to a general education, but some say the lower track does not prepare students for their future.
Advocates of tracking state that students do better when taught at their ability level. In his study for the Fordham Report, Tom Loveless found that differentiating curriculum for student ability impacts student achievement, especially for high groups of students. Stanford University researchers report that tracking does not limit opportunities for the top 10 percent of students. Students in the highest track are more likely to take Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes that prepare students for college.
Those who oppose tracking point to the over-representation of minorities and students from poor households in low-track classes and thus are not in college preparation programs. The Education Trust reports that, despite the fact that Latino students make up 20 percent of Colorado's 11th- and 12th-graders, only 7 percent are enrolled in AP classes. Stanford University Sanford Dornbusch believes that more Latino and poor students should be encouraged to enroll in rigorous classes.
All students should be encouraged to enroll in classes that challenge them academically, regardless of a student's ethnicity or economic status. Equitable programs are those that allow students the opportunity to pursue advanced studies in subjects in which they excel without having to enroll in all advanced classes. Systems should be flexible enough to allow students to go up and down academic levels and should avoid rigid placement in one level of study.