Constructing School Success: The Consequences of Untracking Low Achieving Students 0521568269, 9780521568265

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Constructing School Success: The Consequences of Untracking Low Achieving Students
 0521568269, 9780521568265

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Constructing School Success

CONSTRUCTING SCHOOL SUCCESS The Consequences of Untracking Low-Achieving Students Hugh Mehan Lea Hubbard

Irene Villanueva Angela Lintz

University af California, San Diego

with Dina Okamoto and James Adams

~CAMBRIDGE ~ UNIVERSITY PRESS

Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 lRP 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia ©Cambridge University Press 1996 First published 1996 Printed ih the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Constructing school success : the consequences of untracking lowachieving·students I Hugh Mehan ... et al.].

p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-521-56076-4 (hardcover).- ISBN 0-521-56826-9 (pbk.) 1. Ability grouping in education - Uruted States. 2. Slow learning

children - Education - United States. 3. Academic achievement - United States. 4. Track syst~Ip O;c;Iucation) -United States. 5. Articulation (Education) - United States. 6. Educational chartge United States. I. Mehan, Hugh, 1941LB306l.S316 1996 95-36205 371.2'5'0973 - dc20 CIP A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 0-521-56076-4 Hardback ISBN 0-521-56826-9 Paperback

CONTENTS List of Figures and Tables

page vi

Acknowledgments

vii

1 Introduction

1

2 Tracking Untracking

21

3 Does Untracking Work?

39

4 Background Characteristics and College Enrollment

55

5 The Social Scaffolding Supporting Academic Placement

77

6 Organizational Processes Influencing Untracking

102

7 Peer Group Influences Supporting Untracking

134

8 Parents' Contributions to Untracked Students' Careers

157

9 Implications for Educational Practice

184

10 Implications for Theories Explaining Educational Inequality

212

References

232

Index

245

v

FIGURES AND TABLES FIGURES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

College Enrollment of AVID Students Enrollment of AVID, SDCS, and U.S. Students in 4-Year Colleges Activities of AVID and SDCS Students after High School Enrollment of African American Students in 4-Year Colleges Activities of African American Students after High School Enrollment of White Students in 4-Year Colleges Activities of White Students after High School Enrollment of Latino Students in 4-Year Colleges Activities of Latino Students after High School Parents' Income and AVID Students' College Enrollment Parents' Education and AVID Students' College Enrollment College Eligibility Rates of California and AVID Students Dynamic Support of Academic Development

42 43 44 46 47 48 49 50 51 58 61 73 202

TABLES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Ethnicity of 3-Year AVID Students Number of Students by Median Income, Years in AVID, and Ethnicity Students' Selection Profiles Ethnic Distribution of Students in Selection Groups Selection Profiles and College Eligibility Selection Profiles and College Enrollment Ethnicity, College Eligibility, and College Enrollment Vl

37 57 65 66 68 71 72

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS THIS RESEARCH WAS FUNDED BY A GRANT FROM THE LIN-

guistic Minority Research Institute of the University of California and the Office of Educational Research and Improvement of the U.S. Department of Education. We appreciate the financial and intellectual support of our colleagues of LMRI and OERI. Our thanks to the San Diego City Schools, especially John Griffith and Peter Bell, for encouraging this research. We especially appreciate the support and assistance of Mary Catherine Swanson, Kathy Deering, and Ron Ottinger of AVID Center at the San Diego County Office of Education and the cooperation of the teachers, principals, parents, and students at Bay Meadows, Churchill, Golden Gate, Keeneland, Monrovia, Nassau, Pimlico, and Saratoga High Schools. Claude Goldenberg, Ronald Gallimore, Annette Lareau, Nick Maroules, Richard J. Shavelson, and Randall Souviney gave us helpful advice on earlier drafts. Daryl Stermon gave us invaluable statistical service. Elizabeth Bratton, Amanda Datnow, Diane Friedlaender, and Claudia Tellez ably conducted observations at school sites.

vii

1 INTRODUCTION I am the youngest of a family of three- my mother and one sister twenty-two years older than I. My sister never lived with us. My mother, being a single parent, and working two jobs just to keep a roof over us, had little or no time to spend with me. I remember feeling an extreme sense of insecurity as I was growing up. Later, my mother remarried a wonderful man who I would grow to love and respect. He filled my life with all the love and warmth of a family. After eight years of having a secure family, the effects of my parents' separation nearly destroyed my life. The world of love and security which they had built came tumbling down. I remembered in years back how it had felt to be homeless and I was terrified. I kept asking my mother, "Where are we going to live?" All those feelings of insecurity and loneliness I had felt while growing up slowly started to come back. I then started eating large amounts of food. Although I did not know it at the time, my struggle with bulimia had begun. At fifteen my life was a disaster, and my grades during that time reflect it. My next regrettable move was dropping out of school. My mother, being too preoccupied with her problems, found it difficult to deal with mine. The strong sense of belonging to someone or something led me to associate with a bad group of people, which in tum resulted in my short stay at Juvenile Hall. My mother then decided we were going to move from Sacramento to San Diego. Things slowly started changing when we moved. I enrolled at Saratoga for the second semester of my tenthgrade. With the fresh start God had given me, I was determined to change my life and put all my energy in school. MyGPAwhenlbeganatSaratoga was a 1.3.Nowwith the help of AVID (a program designed to help students have a greater chance of going on to college) it is a 3.7. I am taking

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CONSTRUCTING SCHOOL SUCCESS

two AP classes which I had never dreamed possible. I know the joy of learning and the sense of accomplishment that comes with doing·the best I can. Learning beyond the book has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my highschool career. One of my philosophies is if at first you don't succeed, keep trying until you do, which is one of the reasons I have taken the ACT once and the SAT twice. One of the most ~mportant things I've learned is how to manage my time more wisely. Knowing that to be accepted into a prestigious college I would need to improve my previous grades, I decided to take two classes in summer school, and to keep my two jobs. Two things I enjoy doing when I'm not in school or wo,rking are volunteering to work with inner-city kids and working at "Casa de Cuna" (House of the Crib). The innercity kids are at high risk of dropping out of school. I personally try to instill in them the belief that higher levels of education can be their ticket to success and that in tum will be the road out of the ghetto. "Casa de Cuna" is a Catholic orphanage in Mexico, a project I became involved with shortly after I arrived at Saratoga. Each student that is involved does his or her part ~n raising money, helping out with garage sales, car washes, and helping out with the cle~mup of the orphanage. I am also an officer of "Los Hispanos Unidos" (United Hispanics), a club at Saratoga. The goal of this club is to raise the percentage of H}spanic students graduating from Saratoga, and also to have a higher number of those who graduate go on to college. I plan to apply the strength and determin