Discuss the conflict perspective on education, and explain how tracking produces social inequality

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Tracking refers to the practice of assigning students to specific curriculum groups and

courses on the basis of their test scores, previous grades, or other criteria. Conflict

theorists believe that tracking seriously affects many students' educational

performance and their overall academic accomplishments. In elementary schools,

tracking is often referred to as "ability grouping" and is based on the assumption that it

is easier to teach a group of students who have similar abilities. However, class-based

factors also affect which children are most likely to be placed in "high," "middle," or

"low" groups. Tracking does make it possible for students to work together based on

their perceived abilities and at their own pace? however, it also extracts a serious toll

for students who are labeled as "underachievers" or "slow learners.". Race, class,

language, gender, and many other social categories may determine the placement of

children in elementary tracking systems as much as or more than their actual academic

abilities and interests. The practice of tracking continues in middle school/junior high

and high school. Numerous studies over the past three decades have found that ability

grouping and tracking affect students' academic achievement and career choices.

Moreover, some social scientists believe that tracking is one of the most obvious

mechanisms through which students of color and those from low-income families

receive a diluted academic program, which makes it much more likely that they will fall

even farther behind their white, middle-class counterparts.