Tracking Myself: African American High School Students Talk About the Effects of Curricular Differentiation

Abstract

Research on the merit of school tracking policies has long been at the center of heated educational debate.  Unfortunately, while the trend in studies looking at tracking in schools has continued, the student perspective has been underutilized in much of this previous research.  Recently, however, there has been a surge in research that focuses on the benefits of student-centered research This research recognizes the legitimacy of student perspectives in reform efforts.  This paper focuses on the student perspectives in a qualitative project with seven black students to understand the insights and contributions they have for school leaders. Findings revealed that students can contribute nuanced perspectives on complex educational reform issues, such as tracking, and provide powerful insights that should be considered in school reform conversations.