Chapter 8: Grouping, Tracking, and De-Tracking: Conclusions from Experimental, Correlational, and Ethnographic Research

The publication of Nation at Risk in 1983 ushered in two decades of reforms in America’s elementary and secondary schools. The reform reports issued during these decades identified grouping and tracking as major ills in American education, and elimination of these practices became an important item on the reform agenda. Now, evaluators have begun assessing the success of the comprehensive school reforms of the last two decades. The evaluations raise serious questions about the reform view of grouping and tracking.

One of the main conclusions of the reformers was that grouping and tracking are harmful to students. In The Paideia Proposal, for example, Adler termed multitrack schools “an abominable discrimination” and called for establishment of schools in which everyone would follow the same course of study and pursue the same goals without regard to ability, temperament, or preference (Adler, 1983). Boyer (1983) also advocated establishment of single-track schools that would provide a general education for all. Goodlad (1984) recommended that schools provide a common core of courses and randomly assign students to the classes.