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With a sample of N = 46 in-service and pre-service teachers, we examined whether the labeling of primary-school students as having ADHD would affect teachers' recommendations for a school track in secondary school. Student vignettes were used to mimic real students. Student gender, their GPA--suggested by their last school report in primary school, their school-related behavior, and whether they were labeled as having ADHD or not were orthogonally varied. Students were more likely to be recommended for the highest track when their GPA indicated higher achievements and when their behavior was appropriate. Moreover, evidence was found that teachers applied gender stereotypes when making school-placement recommendations. When the students were high-achieving boys, their behavior mattered to a lower degree than when the students were high-achieving girls. However, the labeling of students as having ADHD did not affect teachers' decisions. Hence, the participants of this study were not prone to stereotyping students according to their label. Implications of the results were discussed.

The relationship between academic tracking and exclusionary discipline actions has only been studied in a limited number of empirical studies. By placing students at the lower strata, schools deprive them of the educational opportunities, widening the educational opportunity gap in a process we define as "opportunity stratification." Using a quantitative analysis of data from the Educational Longitudinal Study, we found students in low-track, non-college preparatory courses had higher odds of experiencing both in-school and out-of-school suspensions when compared to students in the high-track, college preparatory courses. Our findings support the intersecting role of exclusionary discipline and tracking in opportunity stratification.

In some tracked educational systems, track recommendations are formulated by primary school teachers to determine the secondary school level that students will be allocated to. While teachers mostly base their track recommendations on students' prior achievement, the extent to which teachers also consider perceived student attributes, such as students' perceived work habits or parental involvement, and the extent to which these perceived student attributes are predictive for secondary school performance is unclear. Therefore, we first investigated the extent to which teachers consider their perceptions of student attributes in their track recommendations (RQ1). Differences between students from different backgrounds and differences between teachers were taken into account. Second, we examined the extent to which primary school teachers' perceptions of student attributes are predictive for their secondary school performance (RQ2). Participants were 17,953 Grade 6 students from 1105 Dutch primary school teachers (RQ1) and 4150 Grade 9 students from 1289 Dutch secondary school classes (RQ2). Data used in this research were analysed using multilevel models. Findings indicated that teacher-perceived student attributes played only a minor role in track recommendations and secondary school performance. Yet the extent to which these attributes were considered by teachers differed based on students' background and differed between teachers. For secondary school performance, teacher-perceived student attributes to have limited predictive value. The limited predictive value of teacher-perceived student attributes for students' performance in secondary education suggests that teachers may need to be careful with taking perceived student attributes into account when formulating track recommendations.

Ten years ago, Sunnydale High School leaders worked with teachers and community members to create an international baccalaureate (IB)-for-all model to prevent racially and socioeconomically identifiable class levels. For nearly a decade, the program has been successful with stakeholders largely supporting the model. Following pandemic-related school building closures, faculty at Sunnydale High School are having trouble continuing to support students who had vastly different online school experiences. Some faculty and community members have asked the leadership to reconsider the model because they feel some students need additional support that cannot be provided in pre-IB or IB classes while maintaining high expectations for other students. The author offers learning activities through the lens of social justice leadership.

Educational identity has been studied increasingly in the past decades since school is a structured context that shapes adolescent identity formation. Across the academic years, adolescents learn to position themselves in terms of their education and schooling, perceiving these entities as more or less relevant for their self-formation. In this article, I analyze educational identity in the context of personal identity formation in adolescence through longitudinal studies from Japan, the Netherlands, and Romania that used the identity process approach. I also examine the role educational systems play in educational identity trajectories, outlining the limits of personal intentionality when adolescents make educational choices. In addition, I address the relations of educational identity development with two important outcomes of education: academic achievement and vocational development. I conclude that educational identity formation reflects the freedom or coercion that country-specific educational systems teach adolescents through educational tracking and the timing of educational transitions.

The stereotype content model (SCM) describes that groups of people are mainly appraised according to two dimensions: warmth and competence. The present study's aim was to investigate possible stereotyped perceptions held by Grade 12 students in Flanders (the northern part of Belgium) of students in the three major educational tracks. They were asked for ingroup and outgroup evaluations, both in general and for different personality traits. As expected, evidence was found for ingroup favouritism, meaning that respondents rated students from their own educational track more positively compared to students in other educational tracks. The status hierarchy between educational tracks in Flanders was reflected in the judgements of respondents from the general track and respondents from the technical track. Respondents from the vocational track showed a reverse pattern, which can be explained by social identity theory and an anti-school culture in vocational education. Finally, for positively formulated personality traits, the warmth-competence dimensionality of the judgements was confirmed together with the compensation hypothesis of the SCM, stating that lower ratings on warmth covary with higher ratings on competence (and vice versa).

Classroom climate has been considered as an important factor influencing students' learning motivation, achievement and psychological and behavioural health in schools. With the data from German National Educational Panel Study and the latent profile approach, we explored students' perception of German classroom climate including learning and social environment (N = 4643). We also explored the outcome differences among these profiles and possible covariates related to them. The four following latent profiles differing in perceptions of German classroom climate were identified: negative, moderately negative, moderately positive and positive profiles; migration background predicted the probability of belonging to a specific profile; generally, students with a more positive perception had also higher interest, performance motivation, and achievement in reading as well as satisfaction with school life; the profiles of students in academic and vocational tracks were quite similar, but gender did not predict the profile membership probability for students in the vocational track and there was no self-concept disparity among profiles for them. These results supported individual differences in classroom perception as well as the associations of the perceptions with different outcome and background variables, which have implications for understanding students' subjective perceptions of classroom climate and early detection of, or intervention for, the groups at risk.

The disparities in the quality of senior secondary education opportunities are one of key topics in educational equity research in China as they have a critical impact on students' access to higher education and even their future occupational attainments. Students' senior secondary education opportunities are related to multiple factors. This study attempted to examine the relationship between family capital and the quality of children's senior secondary education opportunities. The research into the post-junior secondary education tracking in County B of Jiangsu Province demonstrated that compared with vocational secondary education opportunities, children's access to general senior secondary education (including ordinary and key high schools) was significantly and positively affected by family social capital and less so by family cultural capital, but had a weak correlation with family economic capital; and that cultural capital had more significant impact on children's admission to high-quality senior secondary schools than to ordinary high schools. Subjective aspects of family capital helped improve the access to ordinary senior secondary education of children from underprivileged classes, whilst objective aspects of family capital could limit their key high school enrollment opportunity. It was suggested that the government push through the implementation of the "quota allocation policy" to promote balanced distribution of high achieving students; and that disadvantaged families make more efforts to increase their cultural capital, and schools and communities provide more support to disadvantaged groups to compensate for their paucity of cultural capital and to upgrade the quality of senior secondary education opportunities of their children.

We analyzed the links between access to higher education, exams, and equity in education in Türkiye. Next, we made numerous recommendations and referred to a phenomenon: "The Magnus Effect" to delve into the problems of the relevant processes. After conducting a review of the literature, we came up with four core sources that produce equity issues: tracking, stratification, socioeconomic status, and the qualifying elimination system. One of the ironies was that access to higher education institutions is enabled via high-stakes national exams, which seem to legitimize the process while leading to countless more inequities.

This study aims to explore the determinants of senior high school (SHS) track preference among grade 10 students in the Philippines using a mixed-method approach. A total of 179 respondents from two private and four public schools in the division of Toledo City were selected through stratified random sampling. The study utilized an online questionnaire to gather quantitative data. The study found that the most significant factors influencing SHS track preference were academic performance, career prospects, personal interests, and parental influence. Students who performed well academically tended to choose the academic track, while those who struggled academically were more likely to choose the technical-vocational-livelihood (TVL) track. Career prospects played a crucial role in students' decision-making, as they were more likely to choose tracks that they believed would lead to better job opportunities. Personal interests and skills also influenced track preferences, with students opting for tracks that aligned with their hobbies and talents. Finally, parental influence played a vital role in students' decision-making, as parents often encouraged their children to pursue specific tracks. The study provides insights into the factors influencing SHS track preference among grade 10 students in the Philippines. The findings suggest that academic performance, career prospects, personal interests, and parental influence are critical factors in students' decision-making. The study's results could inform policy and program development aimed at improving SHS education and helping students make informed decisions about their future education and career paths.

Though schools do not track in Brazil, I find that racial classroom segregation in Brazil is on par with recent estimates from North Carolina high schools (Clotfelter et al., 2020). How does racial classroom segregation occur without tracking, and in a supposed "racial paradise," no less? Using national, student-level data spanning from 2011 to 2017, I describe racial classroom segregation among Brazilian 5th and 9th graders and assess potential mechanisms identified in the literature. The findings are consistent with segregation by chance in which: (1) schools initially segregate students by using effectively random classrooms assignment practices and (2) schools choose to move forward with these initial assignments, even when they are highly segregating, rather than make race-conscious adjustments. This is consistent with the myth of racial democracy, a prominent colorblind ideology in Brazil that promotes the legitimacy of de facto racial segregation and undermines the legitimacy of race-conscious desegregation.

Most American classrooms employ a teacher-text-centered model of instruction that is misaligned with the developmental science of how children naturally learn. This article reviews that science and the origins of the common instructional model, including three modifications intended to make it work better (grades, age-graded classrooms, and high-stakes testing) yet which time has shown are problematic. Considering scientific theory change, I show how parallel circumstances exist between the situation in education today and pre-Copernican astronomy, building the case that education is now ripe for a paradigm shift in its instructional model, away from teacher-text-centered learning and to highly structured instructional environments that support self-construction through limited free choice. One proven model that responds to our world's contemporary needs is described, and a prescription is offered for how to bring about a paradigm shift in educational practice.

Educational tracking can lead to different citizenship outcomes. Most studies on the relationship between citizenship and educational track membership applied a variable-centered approach, comparing averages between tracks but not considering differences between students within a track. Person-centered approaches have shown that different citizenship profiles exist, but scholars never investigated the relationship between these profiles and track membership. Using data from the 2016 National Assessment on Civic and Citizenship Education in Flanders (Belgium), the present study combined both approaches to study democratic citizenship norms among Grade 12 students. The variable-centered approach showed that students in general education scored higher on good democratic citizenship items than students in technical and vocational education. However, a person-centered approach found seven distinct good democratic citizenship profiles containing students from each track. Hence, this study challenges stereotypical views of students' views on citizenship in different educational tracks.

Why are most African American students in lower-track classes in racially diverse schools? How does the nexus of home, school, and community impact African Americans' academic placement in a racially and economically diverse school district? This research used ethnographic methods to explore 38 African American middle school students' perceptions and experiences of academic placement in a racially diverse middle school and a segregated and disinvested African American neighborhood. This research introduces the term Plessy's Tracks to acknowledge the sustained racial caste system that manifests through lower-track classes and devalued homes and communities. Findings suggest students face multiple challenges and systemic inequalities when self-selecting classes. Also, racially segregated homes and communities have shaped racialized tracking while producing Black placemaking in homes, classrooms, and communities.

Educational tracking has been studied abundantly in previous research. However, the transitions of Newly Arrived Migrant Students (NAMS) to these (tracked) educational settings are understudied. To facilitate the transition of NAMS to regular secondary education, many countries organise reception classes. This is a separate form of education for NAMS between 12 and 18 years old that immerses them in the language of instruction (i.e. Dutch) and prepares them for participation into regular secondary education. Studying the organisation of reception education is essential to evaluate the inclusiveness of education for NAMS. We take two schools in Flanders (Belgium) as case studies to study in-depth how the grouping of students in reception education influences which track NAMS enter in regular education. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in the two schools (2017-2019) and quantitative data on four generations of NAMS (2014-2018) were collected in one of the schools. The five conceptual dimensions of tracking, as developed by Domina et al. (2019. "Beyond Tracking and Detracking: The Dimensions of Organizational Differentiation in Schools." "Sociology of Education" 92 (3): 293-322), were used to analyse the data. The results show that the grouping of NAMS has a distinct impact on their transition to the tracked education system.

While considerable research in education has established objective and subjective status differences between tracks and focused on the outcomes of ability grouping on students' educational and broader outcomes, there is virtually no research that explains students' variability in track valuation. This study relies on theoretical insights from social psychology, ethnic studies and school effects research to develop hypotheses about the influence of individual and school level features on students' track valuation. Data from The School, Identity and Society survey, involving 4,540 adolescents from 64 Belgian schools is utilised, using multilevel modelling. The findings show the relevance of social identity theory and social norms in students judging all tracks; and track chauvinism, patriotism and cross-track friendships in explaining variability in students' prejudice towards other tracks. However, these relationships vary according to the track position of the student. The conclusions discuss the implications of this study for future research and social policy.

Research has proven that when students are tracked and experience some form of exclusionary discipline, their risk of dropping out of school increases significantly. These effects are compounded for students from low socioeconomic households and students of color. However, there exists a gap in the literature concerning how tracking in specific subjects (mathematics) can influence disciplinary outcomes for students. This study uses the theoretical framework of intersectionality to examine the influence of mathematics tracking while taking into consideration students' identity (socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and gender), on their likelihood of receiving an in-school suspension (ISS). To examine the effects, we asked the research question: Does tracking in mathematics influence the likelihood of students receiving an ISS in the eleventh grade based on their race/ethnicity, gender, and SES identity? Using both logistic regressions with a reference group and single group, we found that enrollment in a non-advanced course in the eleventh grade for Asian boys and girls, Latinx girls, multiracial boys and girls, and White boys and girls increased ISS odds more than their racial and SES identity. This study concludes with recommendations for educators seeking to eliminate tracking in secondary schools.

The present study aimed to identify overall stress and salient stressors experienced by adolescents from different education tracks and self-perceived ethnic backgrounds. A total of 1489 adolescents (M = 13.40 years; SD = 0.89 years) from nine Dutch secondary schools participated. Self-reported stressors were measured with the adapted version of the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire -- Short. After controlling for age, gender, country of birth, and school classes, results showed that overall stress did not differ for educational track nor for ethnic background subgroups. Adolescents in academic education reported more stress from school-related stressors than adolescents attending vocational education. Adolescents with a mixed ethnic background (i.e., Dutch and another ethnicity) reported more stress regarding school-related stressors than adolescents with a Dutch ethnic background. These differences between adolescents of different educational tracks and ethnic backgrounds have implications for intervention programs targeting specific stressors.

This article provides an overview of the Global Leadership course, a 6-credit course integrated within the curriculum of all advanced master programs of Antwerp Management School and designed to align with the school's overarching mission. The course challenges and facilitates students in developing their leadership as a basis for making career choices, explicitly framing it within a global perspective and focusing on sustainability. The course is built on the belief that career development should not occur in isolation. Rather, it should be interwoven within the societal context in which careers unfold, bringing opportunities and challenges. Concretely, students work in diverse cross-program groups on an Action Learning Project addressing one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Further, students follow a track within their program focused on personal development, culminating in the submission of a Personal Development Paper in which they integrate all course experiences as a basis for developing a vision of their career. Through this holistic approach, students develop career competencies beyond considering the "why, what, and how" of work but are stimulated to consider the broader societal context.

For students who perform inconsistently across subjects, teachers face challenges in formulating track recommendations, as their achievement will not point to one secondary school track. This issue may be more prominent for students from diverse backgrounds, given the achievement differences between specific subject domains within these groups. Therefore, we examined the impact of achievement inconsistency (by comparing standardised achievement levels between reading comprehension and mathematics within students) on students' track recommendations in the Dutch educational system (N = 4,248). Most student perform rather consistently. Approximately 20% of the students performed inconsistently (>1 SD difference between subjects). While the overall effect of inconsistency on track recommendations was small, achievement inconsistency primarily seemed to affect track recommendations when the inconsistency was moderate to large. Teachers formulated more "careful" (i.e., lower) track recommendations when the inconsistency was large. This effect was slightly more pronounced for higher-SES students, with no gender differences.

The year students take Algebra I historically determines how far they progress in secondary mathematics, creating complex equity issues around access to this course. By examining a case study of one large, urban school district adjusting to the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSS-M), we demonstrate how district leaders' interactions, in combination with their organizational and institutional environments, led to an overhaul of the secondary mathematics course pathway, ending in detracked middle school mathematics. We find that district leaders' deliberations of mathematics policy were constrained by organizational concerns around pedagogy, equity, logistics, and politics. In other words, the disruption created by the CCSS-M was limited by extant organizational priorities. This study has potential implications for theorizing disruptions and for better understanding equity-oriented mathematics policy and practice.

High school calculus has become indispensable for students seeking a college degree in a STEM field. However, in the present study, we argue that the mathematics opportunities that students seize (when afforded) in middle grades are the key to earning calculus credit in high school. To take calculus in high school, students usually need to take advanced mathematics in middle school to take the prerequisite courses. We analyzed the probability of earning credit in calculus based on a sample of (n = 17,765) students and their eighth-grade mathematics courses. Using descriptive statistics and odds ratio effect sizes we found that taking advanced (i.e., algebra in eighth grade) mathematics courses greatly increased a student's chances of earning calculus credit in high school. However, the results indicated that taking double advanced (i.e., geometry in eighth grade) only statistically significantly improved the odds of Asian students earning calculus credit in high school. While participating in double advanced mathematics statistically significantly lowered the odds of earning calculus credit compared to the advanced track for Black and Latinx students. These findings have major implications for providing equitable math instruction for all students, especially in light of the many math students who are tracked into courses with limited ways to earn the calculus credit necessary for STEM-related college and career success.

Research shows that gang-associated youth are less likely to complete high school and earn a postsecondary educational credential. However, scholars have not determined "why" gang youth do not persist into higher education. This ethnographic study aims to focus on the narratives of 13 Latino high school young men to understand what college knowledge they possess. We found the students have aspirations to pursue postsecondary education degrees or credentials; however, they receive minimal information and support from school personnel to build the needed college-going behaviors and information to plan and prepare for higher education.

The present study investigated adolescents' emotional anticipation profiles at the prospect of high school graduation and examined whether these profiles were similar across gender, educational track, and grade. Our results shed light on profiles that were distinct in level and shape: a Positive Anticipatory-Positive Anticipated emotions profile, a Mixed Anticipatory-High Anticipated emotions profile, a Mixed Anticipatory-Low Anticipated emotions profile, a Negative Anticipatory-High Anticipated emotions profile, and a Positive Anticipatory-High Anticipated emotions profile. Contrasting with variable-centered results, differences across gender, educational track, and grades were found to be rather qualitative in nature (i.e., different profile shape and prevalence) than quantitative (i.e., differences in emotional levels). Our findings offer important insights in understanding adolescents' anticipation of important life and educational transitions.

Examining linked academic transcripts from urban community colleges and their feeder high schools, we identify math course-taking patterns that span sectors. We highlight stifled mobility and chronic repetition of math coursework in the transition to college, and we identify "math traps" from which students do not escape. Math mobility was limited, math repetition was rampant, and nearly half of students found themselves in math traps. All else equal, being trapped in math was significantly linked to race/ethnicity, suggesting that these forms of chronic math tracking across sectors expose previously undocumented forms of inequality in educational experiences.

Motivation and self-concept count among the educationally most relevant factors and the evaluation of many educational interventions requires their valid measurement. The present study examined the psychometric properties of a shortened version of the Students' Approaches to Learning questionnaire measuring 10 distinct motivational and self-concept constructs. This large-scale study drew a nationally representative sample (N = 6209; 49% female) from a population of 11-12-year-old Czech students. The assessment of construct validity indicated (1) the structural relations between the constructs; (2) the predictive relations to scores in standardized achievement tests or teacher-assigned grades; and (3) the distinct differences in constructs' latent means between genders and students of the academic and mainstream track were mostly consistent with theory-derived predictions. The nomological network of the measure maps relatively well onto the observed relations. Although not intended for individual assessment, the measure allows for psychometrically sound group inferences in relatively diverse student populations.

Based on the educational hierarchical reproduction theory and the MMI and EMI hypotheses, this paper discusses the impact of the tracking of general and vocational education at the secondary level on higher education opportunity equity among social classes. The study finds that increasing gross enrollment rates of both general high schools and secondary vocational schools can help improve the equity in admission opportunities of colleges and universities among social strata; expanding the share of general high school places by adjusting the structure of general and vocational tracks (that is, the general-vocational ratio) can effectively reduce the class disparities in college and university admission opportunities; neither the change in the scale nor in the structure of general and vocational tracks will contribute to alleviating class inequality in top university enrollment opportunities.

How do we overcome tracking in mathematics to actualize the goals of teaching for social justice? Tracking is a racist educational structure that puts limits on the effectiveness of teaching for social justice. This essay presents arguments for de-tracking with explanation of how tracking negatively impacts Black and Latinx students. Readers will learn about schools and districts that have de-tracked students juxtaposed with the barriers that keep most schools from dismantling tracking. This essay calls upon schools and researchers to further investigate locally why schools do not work through these barriers to spark action and eliminate tracking.

Over the past few years, teaching and learning of statistics have been influenced by the emergence of the reform movement in education such as the K-12 basic education curriculum. Those of statistics concepts have changed both elementary and secondary level. Considering the educational reform in the Philippines, the study was conducted to determine whether there are significant differences of the determinants such as gender, type of school, parent's educational level, family monthly income, family size and Senior High School track preference to students' self-efficacy beliefs, attitudes towards Statistics, and performance in Statistics. The causal-comparative research design was used for comparing two or more groups to find the differences or determine whether the independent variable influences the dependent variable. The data were gathered from 570 senior high school students of both public and private schools in Mindanao, Region XI. The study adopted the questionnaires on self-efficacy beliefs and attitude towards Statistics while it utilized a researcher-made questionnaire for performance in Statistics. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to determine whether multiple levels of independent variables on their own or in combination with one another influence the dependent variables. The findings revealed that among the demographic factors, only type of school has a significant difference to the self-efficacy beliefs, attitudes towards Statistics, and performance of senior high students in Statistics. Implications from the findings of this study might suggest that improving of K-12 school facilities by the school public administrators and collaborative effort of teachers to enhance the students' self-efficacy, attitudes towards statistics and teaching statistics reveals optimistic results. Also, school administrators may provide opportunities for Statistics teachers to hone their pedagogical skills in promoting and building students' self-confidence and interest in the subject.

Racialized tracking is central to sociological explanations for racially stratified educational outcomes. However, school officials' decision-making is of debated importance for explaining racialized tracking. We contribute to this literature by examining the effects of schools' enrollment policies for Advanced Placement (AP) courses. Using a unique combination of school survey data and administrative data from Wisconsin, we examine what happens to racial inequality in AP participation when school officials enforce performance-based selection criteria, which we call "course gatekeeping." We find that course gatekeeping has racially disproportionate effects. Although racialized differences in prior achievement partially explain the especially large negative effects among students of color, course gatekeeping produces Black-white and Hispanic-white disparities in participation even among students with similar, relatively low prior achievement. We further find that course gatekeeping has longer-run effects, particularly discouraging Black and Asian or Pacific Islander students from attending highly selective four-year colleges.

Track recommendations provided to students in the final grade of primary education lead the allocation to specific school tracks in secondary education in the Netherlands. Where the results of a standardised test indicate that students are able to go to a higher track level, primary schools are required to reconsider and potentially adjust the track recommendation to a higher level. The current research aimed to (1) investigate trends in the level of track recommendations, double track recommendations and reconsiderations over the years 2014-2015 to 2018-2019, (2) explore the variation in (trends of) track recommendations between Dutch primary schools and their school boards, and (3) assess the association between track recommendations and the school level variables degree of urbanisation and type of primary education. We used multilevel growth curve modelling for continuous and count data based on publicly available school-level population data regarding track recommendations and school leavers tests from 2014-2015 to 2018-2019. The number of double track recommendations has increased over the cohorts, with a slightly decreasing gap between schools in rural and urban areas. The number of reconsiderations first decreased and then increased. The differences in reconsiderations between rural and urban areas are increasing over time. An initial trend towards higher average recommendations stabilising in the later cohorts appeared with no clear pattern for degree of urbanisation. The current study adds to the existing knowledge by assessing longitudinal trends instead of cross-sectional analyses and including multiple stakeholders and factors simultaneously.

The present article investigates the relationship between the degree of tracking and inequalities in reading literacy of second-generation and non-immigrant students in 28 Western countries. The article takes into account that next to between-school tracking, there are also more subtle forms of tracking, such as tracking within schools or classes. By elaborating how the distinct mechanisms of different tracking characteristics generate achievement inequalities, I assume that any negative effects of tracking on second-generation immigrant students' achievements are primarily driven by differences in the quality of school environments. Data from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2018 are used and multilevel regression analysis with country-fixed effects are applied. The findings reveal that a higher tracking degree is related to substantial disadvantages in reading literacy for immigrant children. Furthermore, a higher immigrant concentration in schools is associated with immigrant inequalities in reading performance as the degree of tracking increases, whereas unequal distributions of teacher and instructional quality were found to generate inequalities in countries with less tracking. Even though the results are only partly in line with the theory of tracking influences on immigrant achievement disadvantages, they suggest that the interplay between institutional tracking and school characteristics are crucial for learning inequalities.

This meta-analysis examines the effects of sorting secondary students into different tracks ("between-school" tracking) or classrooms ("within-school" tracking) on the efficiency and inequality levels of an educational system. Efficiency is related to the overall learning achievement of students, whereas inequality can refer to "inequality of achievement" (i.e., the dispersion of outcomes) or "inequality of opportunity" (i.e., the strength of the influence of family background on student achievement). The selected publications are 53 analyses performed in the period from 2000 to 2021, yielding 213 estimates on efficiency and 230 estimates on inequality. The results show that the mean effect size (Hedge's G) of tracking on efficiency is not statistically significant (G = -0.063), whereas it is significantly positive (G = 0.117) on inequality. We further set out to explain variation in effect sizes by (a) policy characteristics, (b) the operationalization of main variables, (c) the research design, (d) the set of control variables included in the statistical analyses, and (e) the quality of the study, year of publication, and publication status (peer reviewed or not peer reviewed).

Background: This study examines the relationship between adolescents' biophysiological stress (i.e. cortisol, alpha-amylase and oxidative stress) and the development of grit and school engagement over one school year. Aims: The study aims to identify how objective stress affects grit and three dimensions of school engagement. Based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, the study considers lower- and higher-track school students and their genders. Sample: The sample consists of secondary school students (N = 82; M[subscript Age] = 13.71; SD = 0.67; 48% girls) from Germany. Methods: Students participated in a questionnaire and a biophysiological study in the first semester (t1) of the school year and completed the same questionnaire at the end of the school year (t2). After conducting whole-sample analysis, a multi-group cross-lagged panel model was calculated to identify differences among students at lower- and higher-track schools. Results: Whole-sample analysis reveals that students who exhibit high levels of cortisol report lower cognitive school engagement at t2, whereas students who exhibit high levels of alpha-amylase exhibit less grit at t2. Additionally, lower-track students who exhibited high cortisol levels reported lower cognitive and emotional school engagement throughout the school year. Furthermore, higher-track students with high oxidative stress levels reported lower grit and behavioural school engagement at t2. Conclusions: Examining the relationship between biophysiological stress markers and grit and school engagement of students at lower- and higher-track schools indicates that the educational context and its specific subculture shapes physiological stress reactions, which are related differently to grit and engagement dimensions.

One of the challenges of understanding the complexity of so-called reform mathematics instruction lies in the observational tools used to capture it. This article introduces a unique tool, drawing from commognitive theory, for describing classroom discussions. The Realization Tree Assessment tool provides an image of a classroom discussion, depicting the realizations of the mathematical object manifested during the discussion and the narratives that articulate the links between these realizations. We applied the tool to 34 classroom discussions about a growing-pattern algebraic task and, through cluster analysis, found three types of whole-class discussion. Associations with classroom-level variables (track, but not grade level or teacher seniority) were also found. Implications with respect to applications and usefulness of the tool are discussed.

When students are grouped into school tracks, this has lasting consequences for their learning and later careers. In Germany to date, some groups of students (boys, ethnic minority students) are underrepresented in the highest track. Stereotypes about these groups exist that entail negative expectations about their suitability for the highest track. Based on the shifting standards model, the present research examines if and how stereotypes influence tracking recommendations. According to this theory, members of negatively stereotyped groups will be judged more leniently or more strictly depending on the framing of the judgment situation (by inducing minimum or confirmatory standards). N = 280 teacher students participated in a vignette study in which they had to choose the amount of positive evidence for suitability they wanted to see before deciding to recommend a fictitious student to the highest track. A 2 (judgment standard: minimum vs. confirmatory) × 2 (target student's gender: male vs. female) × 2 (target student's ethnicity: no migration background vs. Turkish migration background) between-subjects design was used. No effects of target gender occurred, but the expected interaction of target's ethnicity and judgment standard emerged. In the minimum standard condition, less evidence was required for the ethnic minority student to be recommended for the highest track compared to the majority student. In the confirmatory standards condition, however, participants tended to require less evidence for the ethnic majority student. Our experiment underlines the importance of the framing of the recommendation situation, resulting in a more lenient or stricter assessment of negatively stereotyped groups.

Vocational education and training (VET) is a common form of upper secondary school tracking in countries around the world. There are ongoing debates regarding the effects of this differentiation on academic and labor market outcomes; however, evidence on civic outcomes is lacking. Using a unique cohort study in Germany (N = 2461) and a doubly robust weighting approach with a rich set of baseline covariates to address selection bias, we estimated the effects of VET (relative to academic upper secondary school) on political interest, internal political efficacy, and intent to vote across 15 years of late adolescence and early adulthood. We estimated negative effects of VET on these civic outcomes, particularly as participants grew older. Implications for future research and VET policy are discussed.

Teachers often face complex educational judgments and research has shown that teachers are prone to be influenced by unrelated information in their judgments and decisions. To investigate the influence of potential misinformation we employed a list-method directed forgetting paradigm and investigated a simulated judgment scenario, in which participants were asked to recommend a higher or lower school track for a fictitious elementary school child. Previous research using list-method directed forgetting revealed that participants can intentionally forget information but this information might still influence further judgments. In two experiments, data on recall performance, school track recommendation, and the evaluative impression of the target were analyzed to investigate whether participants were able to intentionally forget information and whether the to-be-forgotten information influenced later judgments. To-be-forgotten information was either presented before (Experiment 1) or following (Experiment 2) information instructed to be remembered. Both experiments revealed that participants did not forget information instructed to be forgotten and their judgments were not influenced by this information. Bayes factors spoke in favor of the null hypotheses, indicating that the influence of to-be-forgotten information on simulated school track recommendations is questionable. Our results revealed important boundary conditions of directed forgetting in applied contexts.

This study tests an integrative model, which delineates how students' academic motivation, academic self-efficacy and learning strategies (processing strategies and regulation strategies) at the end of secondary education impact academic adjustment in the first semester of the first year of higher education (FYHE) and subsequent academic achievement at the end of the FYHE, in two types of HE programmes. More precisely, the present study explores the extent to which the explanatory values of aforementioned determinants of academic adjustment and academic achievement differ across academic (providing more theoretical and scientific education) and professional (offering more vocational education that prepares students for a particular occupation, such as nursing) programmes. Hereto, multiple-group SEM analyses were carried out on a longitudinal dataset containing 1987 respondents (Academic programmes: N=1080, 54.4%; Professional programmes: N=907, 45.6%), using Mplus 8.3. Results indicate differences in the predictive power of determinants under scrutiny between professional and academic contexts. Firstly, learning strategies and motivational variables at the end of secondary education have more predictive power in the prediction of FYHE academic adjustment in the academic programmes than in professional programmes. Secondly, our results indicate that academic adjustment in the first semester of the FYHE influences academic achievement to a bigger extent in professional programmes than in academic programmes. Moreover, these differences across HE contexts were found after controlling for prior education. Implications of the findings are discussed.