Tracking and Sense of Futility: The Impact of Between- Versus Within-School Tracking in Flanders

• In Event: Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: International and Comparative Perspectives on Educational Achievement

Abstract

Research established that within-school tracking yields negative consequences for lower track students. Present study examines whether the association between feelings of futility and track depends upon between- or within school tracking. Three-level multilevel analyses (HLM6) on the Flemish Educational Assessment data, gathered in 2004–2005 from 11,872 3rd- and 5th-grade students (9th- and 11th-grade in US) clustered in 146 tracks in a representative sample of 85 secondary schools, showed that students in vocational, technical and arts tracks display significantly higher levels of futility than academic students. Within- versus between-school tracking is not significantly associated with futility, but cross-level interaction with vocational track proves significant (p<0.10): the difference between highest (academic) and lowest (vocational) tracks is slightly larger in within-school tracking.

Authors

• Mieke Van Houtte, Ghent University

• Peter Alexander Joris Stevens, Ghent University