Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Curriculum tracking and teacher expectations: evidence from discrepant course taking models

  • Published:
Social Psychology of Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In an effort to understand teacher-student relationships much research has investigated how teacher expectations of student performance in the classroom affect achievement growth. However, little research has focused on how teacher expectations of students’ educational attainment are formed. In this paper, we examine how students’ high school track placements affect teacher expectations regarding students’ educational attainment in the NELS data. NELS is a large, nationally representative longitudinal study from the United States of the graduating class of 1992. We focus on students with discrepant track placements to determine how different teachers evaluate the same student. Overall, for the same student, teachers in high track classes have higher college expectations than teachers in lower track classrooms.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abraham J. (1989) Testing Hargreaves’ and Lacey’s differentiation-polarization theory in a setted comprehensive. British Journal of Sociology 40: 46–81

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adelman, C. (1999). Answers in the toolbox: Academic intensity, attendance patterns, and bachelor’s degree attainment. U.S. Department of Education. ERIC Report Number PLLI-1999-1801.

  • Adelman C. (2006) The toolbox revisited: Paths to completion from high school through college. Department of Education, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Andrew, M., & Hauser, R. (in press). Adoption? Adaptation? Evaluating the formation of educational expectations. Social Forces.

  • Attewell P. (2001) The winner-take-all high school: Organizational adaptations to educational stratification. Sociology of Education 74: 267–295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ball S. J. (1981) Beachside comprehensive: A case study of secondary schooling. Cambridge University Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Bandura A. (1977) Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review 84: 191–215

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berends M. (1995) Educational stratification and students’ social bonding to school. British Journal of Sociology of Education 16: 327–351

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Broaded C. M. (1997) The limits and possibilities of tracking: Some evidence from Taiwan. Sociology of Education 70: 36–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brophy, J., & Good, T. L. (1974) [1983]. Teacher–student relationships: Causes and consequences. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.

  • Carbonaro W. (2005) Tracking, students’ effort, and academic achievement. Sociology of Education 78: 27–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caughlan S., Kelly S. (2004) Bridging methodological gaps: Instructional and institutional effects of tracking in two English classes. Research in the Teaching of English 39: 20–62

    Google Scholar 

  • Covington M. V. (1992) Making the grade: A self-worth perspective on motivation and school reform. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Davis J. A. (1966) The campus as a frog pond: An application of the theory of relative deprivation to career decisions of college men. American Journal of Sociology 72: 17–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dee T. (2005) A teacher like me: Does race, ethnicity, or gender matter?. American Economic Review 95: 158–165

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dee T. (2007) Teachers and gender gaps in student achievement. Journal of Human Resources 42: 528–554

    Google Scholar 

  • Dee T., West M. (2011) The non-cognitive returns to class size. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 33: 23–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Domina, T., & Saldana, J. (2012). Does raising the bar level the playing field? Mathematics curricular intensification and inequality in American high schools, 1982–2004. American Educational Research Journal. doi:10.3102/0002831211426347

  • Dweck C. S., Leggett E. L. (1988) A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review 95: 156–273

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eckert P. (1989) Jocks and burnouts: Social categories and identity in the high school. Teachers College Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Felmlee D., Eder D., Tsui W. (1985) Peer influence on classroom attention. Social Psychology Quarterly 48: 215–226

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Figlio, D. (2005). Names, expectations, and the black-white test score gap. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 11195.

  • Gamoran A. (1987) The stratification of high school learning opportunities. Sociology of Education 60: 135–155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gamoran A., Berends M. (1987) The effects of stratification in secondary schools: Synthesis of survey and ethnographic research. Review of Educational Research 57: 415–436

    Google Scholar 

  • Guo G., VanWey L. K. (1999) Sibship size and intellectual development: Is the relationship causal?. American Sociological Review 64: 169–187

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hallinan M., Williams R. A. (1990) Students’ characteristics and the peer-influence process. Sociology of Education 63: 122–132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hargreaves D. H. (1967) Social relations in a secondary school. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jussim L., Harber K. D. (2005) Teacher expectations and self-fulfilling prophecies: Knowns and unknowns, resolved and unresolved controversies. Personality and Social Psychology Review 9: 131–155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly S. (2004)   Do increased levels of parental involvement account for the social class difference in track placement?. Social Science Research 33: 626–659

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly S. (2007) The contours of tracking in North Carolina. The High School Journal 90: 15–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly S. (2008) What types of students’ efforts are rewarded with high marks?. Sociology of Education 81: 32–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly S. (2009a) Social identity theories and educational engagement. British Journal of Sociology of Education 30: 449–462

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly S. (2009b) The black-white gap in mathematics course taking. Sociology of Education 82: 47–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, S., Covay, E. E. (2008). Curriculum tracking: Reviewing the evidence on a controversial but resilient educational policy. In T. Good (Ed.), 21st Century education (Vol. 2, pp. 401–409). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

  • Kelly S., Price H. (2009) Vocational education: A clean slate for disengaged students?. Social Science Research 38: 810–825

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly S., Price H. (2011) The correlates of tracking policy: Opportunity hoarding, status competition, or a technical-functional explanation?. American Educational Research Journal 48: 560–585

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly S., Turner J. (2009) Rethinking the effects of classroom activity structure on the engagement of low-achieving students. Teachers College Record 111: 1665–1692

    Google Scholar 

  • Lacey C. (1966) Some sociological concomitants of academic streaming in a grammar school. British Journal of Sociology 17: 245–262

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lareau, A. (1989) [2000]. Home advantage: Social class and parental intervention in elementary education. Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield.

  • LeTendre G., Hofer B., Shimizu H. (2003) What is tracking? Cultural expectations in the United States, Germany, and Japan. American Educational Research Journal 40: 43–89

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Long J. S. (1997) Regression models for categorical and limited dependent variables. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA

    Google Scholar 

  • Lucas S. R. (1999) Tracking inequality: Stratification and mobility in American schools. Teachers College Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Lucas S. R., Berends M. (2002) Sociodemographic diversity, correlated achievement, and de facto tracking. Sociology of Education 75: 328–348

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marsh H. W., Seaton M., Trautwein U., Ludtke O., Hau K., O’Mara A. J. et al (2008) The big-fish-little-pond-effect stands up to critical scrutiny: Implications for theory, methodology, and future research. Educational Psychology Review 20: 319–350

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCullagh P. (1980) Regression models for ordinal data (with discussion). Journal of Royal Statistical Society 42: 109–142

    Google Scholar 

  • McFarland D. A. (2001) Student resistance: How the formal and informal organization of classrooms facilitates everyday forms of student defiance. American Journal of Sociology 107: 612–678

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Metz M. H. (1978) Classrooms and corridors: The crisis of authority in desegregated secondary schools. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA

    Google Scholar 

  • Mood C. (2010) Logistic regression: Why we cannot do what we think we can do, and what we can do about it. European Sociological Review 26: 67–82

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nystrand M., Gamoran A. (1997) The big picture: Language and learning in hundreds of English lessons. In: Nystrand M. (eds) Opening dialogue. Teachers’ College Press, New York, pp 30–74

    Google Scholar 

  • Oakes J. (1985) Keeping track: How schools structure inequality. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT

    Google Scholar 

  • Pace J. L., Hemmings A. (2007) Understanding authority in classrooms: A review of theory, ideology, and research. Review of Educational Research 77: 4–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Page R. N. (1991) Lower-track classrooms: A curricular and cultural perspective. Teachers College Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Pallas A. M., Entwisle D. R., Alexander K. L., Stluka M. F. (1994) Ability-group effects: Instructional, social, or institutional?. Sociology of Education 67: 27–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raudenbush S. W., Bryk A. S. (2002) Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA

    Google Scholar 

  • Riehl C., Sipple J. W. (1996) Making the most of time and talent: Secondary school organizational climates, teaching task environments, and teacher commitment. American Educational Research Journal 33: 873–901

    Google Scholar 

  • Riegle-Crumb C., Grodsky E. (2010) Racial-ethnic differences at the intersection of math course-taking and achievement. Sociology of Education 83: 248–270

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenbaum J. (2001) Beyond college for all: Career paths for the forgotten half. Russell Sage, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Roeser R. W., Eccles J. S., Sameroff A. J. (2000) School as a context of early adolescents’ academic and social-emotional development: A summary of research findings. The Elementary School Journal 100: 443–471

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roeser R. W., Strobel K. R., Quihuis G. (2002) Studying early adolescents’ academic motivation, Social-emotional functioning, and engagement in learning: Variable- and person-centered approaches. Anxiety, Stress and Coping 15: 345–368

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruble D. N., Frey K. S. (1987) Social comparison and self-evaluation in the classroom: Developmental changes in knowledge and function. In: Masters J. C., Smith W. P. (eds) Social comparison, social justice, and relative deprivation. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp 81–104

    Google Scholar 

  • Rudolph K. D., Lambert S. F., Clark A. G., Kurlakowsky K. D. (2001) Negotiating the transition to middle school: The role of self-regulatory processes. Child Development 72: 929–946

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider B., Stevenson D. (1999) The ambitious generation: America’s teenagers, motivated but directionless. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneider B., Swanson C. B., Riegle-Crumb C. (1998) Opportunities for learning: Course sequences and positional advantages. Social Psychology of Education 2: 25–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seaton M., Marsh H. W., Craven R. G. (2010) Big-fish-little-pond effect: Generalizability and moderation—two sides of the same coin. American Educational Research Journal 47: 390–433

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shernoff D. J., Csikszentmilhalyi M., Schneider B., Shernoff E. S. (2003) Student engagement in high school classrooms from the perspective of flow theory. School Psychology Quarterly 18: 158–176

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skinner E. A., Wellborn J. G., Connell J. P. (1990) What it takes to do well in school and whether I’ve got it: A process model of perceived control and children’s engagement and achievement in school. Journal of Educational Psychology 82: 22–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith W. P., Davidson E. S., France A. (1987) Social comparison and achievement evaluation in children. In: Masters J. C., Smith W. P. (eds) Social comparison, social justice, and relative deprivation. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp 55–80

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevens P. A. J., Van Houtte M. (2011) Adapting to the system or the student? Exploring teacher adaptations to disadvantaged students in an English and a Belgian secondary school. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 33: 59–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stipek D. J., MacIver D. (1989) Developmental change in children’s assessment of intellectual competence. Child Development 60: 521–538

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Valeski T. N., Stipek D. J. (2001) Young children’s feelings about school. Child Development 72: 1198–1213

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Houtte M. (2004) Tracking effects on school achievement: A quantitative explanation in terms of the academic culture of school staff. American Journal of Education 110: 354–388

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Houtte M. (2006) School type and academic culture: Evidence for the differentiation-polarization theory. Journal of Curriculum Studies 38: 273–292

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Houtte M., Stevens P. A. J. (2009) Study involvement of academic and vocational students: Does between-school tracking sharpen the difference?. American Educational Research Association 46: 943–973

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Houtte, M., & Van Maele, D. (2012). Students’ sense of belonging in technical/vocational schools versus academic schools: The mediating role of faculty trust in students. Teachers College Record, 114(7). ID number 16467 http://www.tcrecord.org

  • Whitehead J. (1993) Sample size calculations for ordered categorical data. Statistics in Medicine 12: 2257–2271

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Administrative and Policy Studies, University of Pittsburgh, 5902 Wesley W. Posvar Hall, 230 S. Bouquet Street, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA

    Sean Kelly

  2. Department of Sociology, University of Notre Dame, 1016 Flanner Hall, Notre Dame, IN, 46556, USA

    William Carbonaro

Authors
  1. Sean Kelly
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. William Carbonaro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sean Kelly.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kelly, S., Carbonaro, W. Curriculum tracking and teacher expectations: evidence from discrepant course taking models. Soc Psychol Educ 15, 271–294 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-012-9182-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-012-9182-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation