When 89% of high school graduates plan BA degrees, and low-achieving seniors who plan degrees have 80% failure rates, raising already high plans may be a poor strategy for improving college success. Using data on 7th-10th grade students, Domina et al. argue that higher plans are associated with success and suggest that my study of high school…

Proposes that a school tracking system can be a good context for studying the effects of stratification on socialization. Tracking is found to have a pronounced influence on the dispersion of I.Q. scores. Concludes with speculations on the relationship of stratification and socialization process. (Author/AM)

Research indicates that the "college for all" policies encouraged by well-intentioned but misguided educators are preventing many students from getting crucial information about how they are doing, seeing the full range of their desirable options, assessing the appropriateness and likely outcomes of available options, and identifying actions that…

Interviews with teachers in a detracked high school found that detracking was well-implemented, and teachers were initially enthusiastic, but there were three unanticipated outcomes: irresolvable conflicts; a uniformity that deprived faster students of challenge and slower students of mastery; and doubts about the legitimacy of the class, even in…

Presents case studies and multivariate analyses that show that prefectures in Japan with the most egalitarian detracking reforms had the most flight from public to private schools and the emergence of the most within-school grouping. Discusses implications for the design of tracking policies. (Author/SLD)