The New York Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is a grass-roots community organization representing 20,000 mostly low-income residents of New York City. This report presents information about students relegated to the low achievement track that ACORN suggested, in a previous report, was inevitable when parents of color are denied information needed to make decisions about their children's education. It summarizes an investigation of what happens when students are denied the quality and content of course work and instruction they need to compete successfully for a spot in one of the city's few high schools that might prepare them for a quality university education. The investigation leads to the conclusion that the racial imbalance occurring at the city's premier academic high schools, Stuyvesant and Bronx Science, and some similar schools, is the direct result of programmatic and geographic tracking that condemns students to failing, zoned high schools. It is shown that only a fraction of middle school students have the opportunity to learn the material needed to do well on the entrance examination, and that race is a major factor. Evidence is drawn primarily from 86 middle schools in 14 community school districts. Eighteen of the schools had no students in a mathematics course that is a key to scoring well on the entrance examination for Stuyvesant and Bronx Science. Private and parochial schools and just three community districts provide over half of the students to the two "science" schools. School personnel continue to deny parents information about academic programs at all grade levels. Recommendations are made for greater equity in selection for academic programs. An appendix contains supplemental material, including three summary tables of information from the middle schools and some summary information for the specialized high school entrance examination. (SLD)