"The Blind Leading the Blind": Tracking, Friendship Segregation, and College Information

• In Event: Tracking Through the Life Course of Education

Abstract

Objective/Purpose
Many high schools make use of some form of tracking. However, research has consistently found that this commonplace practice contributes to inequality in terms of students’ achievement, aspirations, outcomes and even identities, particularly in racially and socioeconomically diverse schools where tracking ends up grouping students by race and class (Lewis & Diamond, 2015; Oakes, 2005; Tyson, 2011). While we know that tracking affects students during their high school years, we know less about the impact of tracking on students’ postsecondary pathways. How does tracking in racially and socioeconomically diverse high schools influence students’ college application experiences, if at all? In this paper, I examine how tracking in diverse high schools affects students’ access to college information via peer networks.

Theoretical Framework
First generation college students and racial/ethnic minorities tend to have less access to college information because their social networks tend to have few adults with college experiences (Avery & Kane, 2004; Radford, 2013; Venezia & Kirst, 2005). As a result, these students’ networks contain less social capital, or resources and information that can assist them with the college application process (Kim & Schneider, 2005). Racially and socioeconomically diverse high schools would seem to provide more opportunities for students to expand their networks and tap into those that have more information, increasing their social capital through peers. However, at the same time, the principle of homophily suggests that students are more likely to make friends with those like themselves (McPherson, Smith-Lovin & Cook, 2001). This would lead to segregated networks where resources and information are clustered among more advantaged students (Lin, 2000).

Methods/Data
I draw upon two years of fieldwork at two racially and socioeconomically diverse highs schools in the suburban northeast. I conducted 147 interviews with students, teachers, counselors and administrators and 225 hours of observations. I also collected data on students’ GPAs, test scores, college applications and college outcomes.

Findings
Tracking contributed to friendship segregation among students by both race and class at the two schools. Tracking made it difficult for students to make friends across ability levels due to physical separation. It also enhanced racial and socioeconomic differences between students, further differentiating and segregating students from each other. Within these segregated networks, college information varied greatly. Students in upper-level courses discussed a wider array of colleges and more selective colleges and provided information about college strategies and emotional support to their peers. Lower-level students tended to not seek out information, either not wanting to bother their friends or because they assumed their friends wouldn’t know much more than they did. What little information they did find was of little help.

Significance
Research has found that tracking contributes to segregated social spaces and friendship groups in diverse high schools, though this work has not explored the consequences for students in terms of college pathways. My findings show that tracking also limits students’ access to college information via peers when it contributes to social segregation by race and class.

Author

• Megan M. Holland, University at Buffalo SUNY