Choosing Tracks:“Freedom of Choice” in Detracking Schools

Abstract

In this article, we discuss how and why educators’ attempts at detracking by providing students and parents with greater “freedom of choice” in track placement often result in little movement of low-and middle-track students into high-track classes. Using data from six racially mixed high schools undergoing detracking reform, the authors contend that these schools’ low- and middle-track students, most of whom were African American and Latino, resisted entering high-track classes because the relationship between their places in the tracking hierarchy and their evolving identities and ideologies shaped the way such options were presented to and perceived by them. The authors conclude that the hidden institutional barriers within schools, the students’ tracked aspirations, and the desire of students to learn in “places of respect” thwarted reformers’ efforts to detrack through the mechanism of choice.