Keeping track : how schools structure inequality.

Keeping track is about tracking, the nearly ubiquitous secondary-school practice of separating students for instruction by achievement or ability-a practice that seems to limit educational attempts to be either equitable or excellent. The analysis is based on data collected in 297 classrooms as part of John I. Goodlad's A Study of Schooling (1980). Powerful evidence indicates that students who are grouped do not learn better and do not a develop a more positive self-image as has been assumed. The statistics do not support the fairness and accuracy of many placement decisions, and Oakes concludes that tracking reflects the class and racial inequalities of the larger society and helps to perpetuate them. The data analysis is placed in a context of the social, historical, and political considerations that surround tracking and become an integral part of it. Oakes has an important message for secondary education and comes across as sincere and convincing in arguing her main thesis-that tracking is one of the great unintentional malpractices of American education. This book is recommended for all secondary educators, graduate students, and social science researchers. It is appropriate reading for upper-division undergraduates.-C.L. Smith, University of Kentucky