EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Patterns, Determinants, and Consequences of Ability Tracking: Evidence from Texas Public Schools

Kate Antonovics (kantonov@ucsd.edu), Sandra Black, Julie Cullen and Akiva Yonah Meiselman

No 30370, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Little is known about the pervasiveness or determinants of within-school ability tracking in the US. To fill this gap, we use detailed administrative data to estimate the extent of tracking in Texas public schools for grades 4 through 8 over the years 2011-2019. Strikingly, we find that ability tracking across classes within schools overwhelms sorting by ability across districts and schools, as well as sorting by race/ethnicity or economic disadvantage. We also examine how schools operationalize tracking as well as the local characteristics that predict tracking. Finally, we explore how exposure to tracking (and the bundle of associated practices) relates to achievement gains, finding that, on average, tracking increases inequality by slightly improving test scores of higher-achieving students without harming those of lower-achieving students.

JEL-codes: H75 I21 I24 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-ltv and nep-ure
Note: ED PE
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w30370.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Patterns, Determinants, and Consequences of Ability Tracking: Evidence from Texas Public Schools (2022) Downloads
Working Paper: Patterns, Determinants, and Consequences of Ability Tracking: Evidence from Texas Public Schools (2022) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30370

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w30370

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by (wpc@nber.org).

 
Page updated 2024-12-10
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30370