Poster #226 - The Impact of Academic Tracking on Friendship Selection

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Academic tracking, in which students are assigned to classes based on perceived ability level, is common in middle schools. Tracking is used for teaching purposes, however, academic tracking may also have implications for students’ social experiences. For example, students tend to select friends who are close in proximity (propinquity; Kadushin, 2012) and those who are similar to themselves (homophily; McPherson, Smith-Lovin, & Cook, 2001).
The question we explore in the present study is whether friendships may be more common among trackmates than across trackmates. Our hypothesis is that since trackmates are likely similar, not only with regard to academic ability, but also on other dimensions that are associated with academics (e.g., ethnicity, social behavior; Chmielewski, 2014), tracking may increase the likelihood that students form friendships with similar peers of the same academic track, thus leading to divergence and inequalities across lower and higher tracked students.
We examined friendship selection within and across middle school math and language arts classes using longitudinal social network analyses. Participants were 278 6th graders (54% female; non-White [83%] and White [18%]). Students nominated up to 10 friends, and academic track placements in math and language arts classes (i.e., whether students were in average, advanced, or honors tracks) were reported by the school. Students’ track placements were recorded at the beginning of the school year and friendship nominations were collected at the beginning and end of the school year.
Longitudinal social network analyses in RSIENA accounts for network structure effects, so that network stability, selectivity, reciprocity, transitivity, and hierarchy are controlled. The impact of ethnicity on relationship choice was also controlled.
Network structure controls indicate less than desirable network stability (Table 1; Jaccard’s index = 0.20) and selectivity amongst friendships (Table 2), a preference for reciprocating friendships and a strong hierarchical tendency amongst peer relationships. In addition, the ego and alter effects indicate higher-tracked students made more friendship nominations in math but not language arts tracks, and higher-tracked students received more friendship nominations in both math and language arts (Table 2).
Primary analyses revealed a positive, significant selection effect parameter, which indicates students’ academic track positions were related to the selection of friends during the school year. Students selected trackmates as friends (Est. = 0.50, p < .001 for math; Est. = 0.67, p < .001 for language arts). That is, for both math and language arts tracks, students selected friends who were in the same academic track. Because academic tracking is often interrelated with students’ ethnicity, the selection of peers of the same academic track as friends suggests students may not be experiencing the benefits of exposure to diverse peers. Thus, tracking may have implications for students’ social development. Prior research on academic tracking suggests that students may benefit from detracking, which would include creating a single academic track for each course subject, increasing the academic rigor for those in prior average academic tracks, and exposing students to more diverse ethnic populations (Modica, 2015).

Authors

• Kenton Woods, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Laura D. Hanish, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dawn DeLay, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Carol Lynn Martin, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author