Tracking and Placement Politics in North Carolina: Pushback, Progress, and Policy Reform

• In Event: Reforming the Math Hierarchy: Policy, Practice, and the Politics of Equity in Access and Pathways

Abstract

This paper examines how political, institutional, and rhetorical dynamics influenced the trajectory of North Carolina’s advanced mathematics placement policy during the 2019 legislative session. Using a qualitative case study approach and guided by a proposed three-part politics of tracking framework, the study explores how pushback was framed, how key actors responded, and what these tensions reveal about the durability of tracking practices. Although the policy’s core provisions remained unchanged from its 2018 origins, efforts to strengthen and clarify the law encountered resistance. By analyzing competing values and strategic narratives used to delay or dilute reform, the study contributes to scholarship on policy feedback, tracking, and educational reform, offering insight into how modest, equity-oriented reforms can provoke resistance post-enactment.

Author

• Constance Clark, Rutgers University - Newark