Why Go to College

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Why Go to College?

• Continued

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SocLexicon

• Ideal Type
• Group Solidarity
• Labor Market
• Selectivity
• Tracking
• School Culture
• Contest Mobility/Sponsored Mobility
• Equality of Opportunity/Equality of Outcome

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Today

• Tracking
• 3 Studies
• Read Hallinan and Oakes before section tomorrow
• First Memo due on Monday (in class)

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(No Transcript)
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Tracking

• Tracking refers to grouping students by ability
  for instructional purposes
• Eg., Advanced, Honors, Regular, Basic
• AP Courses
• IB Curriculum
• Some form of tracking is found in 80 of American
  schools

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The impact of tracking

• Research shows that most students would learn
  more if there were no tracking
• Tracking increases cognitive inequality
• Tracking amplifies early gains and losses
• Tracking is an academic disaster for all students
  except those at the very top
• The effects of tracking are particularly profound
  on young children

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• Tracking affects school culture because it tends
  to separate academically successful kids from
  less successful kids throughout the day
• School-within-a-school

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• Tracking is the mechanism by which some students
  are oriented toward school, while others
  interest drifts away

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The effect of tracking on Friendship patterns
No tracking
tracking
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Tracking influences friendship choices

• But do friendship choices affect course-taking?
• i.e., are these processes mutually reinforcing?)

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The Role of Gender and Friendship inAdvanced
Course Taking

• Riegle-Crumb, Farkas, and Muller (2006)
• Does same-sex friends academic performance
  predict advanced course taking in the 11th and
  12th grades for female and male students?
• Is the effect of the academic performance of
  same-sex friends more important in predicting
  girls advanced course taking in the
  traditionally male-dominated areas of math and
  science than it is in the more traditionally
  female dominated field of English?
• Is there an interaction between same-sex friends
  performance and the gender composition of the
  friendship group that is particular to promoting
  girls advanced course taking in science and
  math, such that the effects of friends
  performance are greater in the context of a
  predominantly female friendship group?

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Analysis of Add Health Data

• Nationally representative sample of Adolescents
  attending High School in the US (n 20,000)
• Respondents followed for ten years
• Extensive data on friendships
• Linked to high school transcript data

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(No Transcript)
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Findings
Physics
English
Math
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Answer

• Friendship patterns can influence course-taking
• Especially important for girls
• Especially important for girls in math and
  science (traditionally girls have lower
  achievement in these subjects)