Ability Tracking and Class Mobility in High School Mathematics: The Case of Low Achievers

The goal of this paper is to evaluate commonly held criticisms of the practice of ability tracking in high school mathematics. To do so, I employ data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 and follow-ups to model classroom selection and education production. This paper will focus only on the causes and effects of tracking on students who were tracked as low-ability in eighth grade. From this, we can see how many students, if any, switched out of the low-ability track by tenth grade and how various switches have affected their test scores in mathematics. I find that students exercise mobility between ability-tracks as late as tenth grade and that ability-track placement is largely determined by test scores. In addition, I find evidence that there would be minimal, if any, test score improvement among low-ability students if they were all moved to a class of heterogeneous ability.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mathematics

Department dc:contributor.department

Mathematics

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Shapiro, Bradley Thomas

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Floyd, William J.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Norton, Anderson H. III
• Tideman, Nicolaus

• Economics of Education
• Secondary School Mathematics
• Ability Tracking

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-05082009-135138

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/32393