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Description
Academic tracking has long been a subject of debate due to its potential impact on educational equity, with students who are tracked highly receiving a higher quality
education in comparison to students tracked lowly. These disparities in education quality
may be affecting students’ outcomes, as it has been demonstrated that the short-term
academic outcomes of students, such as their grades, tend to be affected by their
academic track positioning. This dissertation builds upon these previous findings by
utilizing a subsample of 20,584 students from the High School Longitudinal Study (2009)
to examine the relation between academic track positioning and post-secondary education
attendance, program length, college major, and expected future job. Additionally, the
relation between academic tracking and each of these outcomes was also assessed using
mediation, with potential mediators including education aspiration, expectations, and
academic self-efficacy. Findings suggest that academic track positioning in math and
science are influential in students’ post-secondary and career outcomes, with students
who are positioned highly in either subject having greater post-secondary attendance,
program length, higher representation in STEM college majors, and expectations for
future jobs in STEM fields in comparison to students tracked lowly. Additionally,
education aspirations and expectations mediated the relations between math academic
track positioning and each of the outcomes, although the effects were small in size.
Educators should consider exploring avenues for improving education quality in low
academic tracks.
ContributorsWoods, Kenton Bentley (Author) / Hanish, Laura (Thesis advisor) / DeLay, Dawn (Committee member) / Martin, Carol (Committee member) / Jager, Justin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023