AERA's centennial provides an opportunity to reinvigorate the aspirations that gave rise to our research community in the United States: hope and determination that research can strengthen public education, society's most democratic institution. The first AERAers sought to produce scientific knowledge to improve large, increasingly diverse urban…

This paper presents results from a 3-year longitudinal case study of 10 racially and socioeconomically mixed secondary schools participating in detracking reform. It explores how broadly held conceptions of intelligence intervene in efforts to detrack schools and examines new constructions of intelligence and how they fit into school detracking.…

Examines the historical, political, and economic context of differentiated schooling. Argues that tracking perpetuates inequality. Evaluates the influence on education of the politics of economic scarcity, social conservatism, and assumptions about abilities and the role of schools in providing equal opportunity. (KH)