Research on Tracking:

NEA calls for elimination of ability grouping (tracking)

http://www.nea.org/tools/16899.htm

a YouTube video on the math crisis particularly as it pertains to girls

https://www.youcubed.org/the-american-math-crisis-forthcoming-documentary/

An educational article on tracking:

http://www.education.com/pdf/track-not-track-middle-school/

An interesting chapter from a book on detracking and some of the data on tracking and how kids are placed and misplaced and how they are almost never moved from the group they start out in.

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/108013/chapters/What-Tracking-Is-and-How-to-Start-Dismantling-It.aspx

From an NCTM publication:

After students have been tracked, they usually remain in the high or low track where they were initially placed, and the achievement gaps between the two become greater over time (Wheelock 1992; O’Connor, Lewis, and Mueller 2007). In fact, evidence suggests that removing tracking and teaching all students as if they were high achievers does not “drag down” high achievers, but rather pulls up the performance of average students (Garrity 2004). Indeed, assigning students to lower-ability groupings depresses students’ learning regardless of students’ ability levels (Hallinan 2003).

Otherwise-capable students placed into low math tracks have shown a decrease in their mathematics self-efficacy (Akos, Shoffner, and Ellis 2007; Callahan 2005). Combined with inappropriate instruction and teachers’ beliefs about social barriers and the lack of support, students face the prospects of lowered expectations and the resulting lower grades that ultimately affect their long-term college and career choices. Unfortunately, this scenario has disproportionately affected minorities (Akos, Shoffner, and Ellis 2007). The deleterious effects of lower selfefficacy can cause anxiety, which has been shown to affect cognition and performance neurologically (Gray, Braver, and Raichle 2002). In other words, when capable students are placed into low math tracks, their performance gets worse. The fact of the matter is, all students benefit from taking rigorous coursework (Hallinan 2003). We know this; yet too often, we ignore it. In fact, although an association exists for all students between taking rigorous high school mathematics and going to college, the relationship is even greater for students whose parents’ education did not go beyond high school (Choy 2002).

111.              The CA CCSSM Grade 8 standards are of significantly higher rigor than the Algebra I course that many students have taken while in grade 8.

The CA CCSSM for grade eight address the foundations of algebra by including content that  was previously part of the Algebra I course, such as more in-depth study of linear  relationships and equations, a more formal treatment of functions, and the exploration of  irrational numbers. For example, by the end of the CA CCSSM for grade eight, students will have applied graphical and algebraic methods to analyze and solve systems of linear equations in two variables. The CA CCSSM for grade eight also include geometry  standards that relate graphing to algebra in a way that was not explored previously. In addition, the statistics presented in the CA CCSSM for grade eight are more  sophisticated than those previously included in middle school and connect linear  relations with the representation of bivariate data.

The New Algebra I and Mathematics I courses build on the CA CCSSM for Grade 8 and are correspondingly more advanced than the previous courses. Because many of the topics previously included in the former Algebra I course are in the CA  CCSSM for grade eight, the new Algebra I and Mathematics I courses typically start in  ninth grade with more advanced topics and include more in-depth work with linear  functions, exponential functions and relationships, and go beyond the previous high school standards in statistics. Mathematics I builds directly on the continuation of the  CA CCSSM in grade eight and provides a seamless transition of content through an  integrated curriculum.  Because of the rigor that has been added to the CA CCSSM for grade eight, some recalibration of course sequencing will be needed to insure students are able to master the additional content. Specifically, today’s students, who are similar to those who may have previously been able to master an Algebra 1 course in grade eight, may find the new CA CCSSM for grade eight content significantly more difficult. This provides an opportunity to strengthen conceptual understanding by encouraging students – even strong mathematics students - to meet the CA CCSSM grade eight standards while enrolled in grade eight.

An interesting chapter from a book on detracking and some of the data on tracking and how kids are placed and misplaced and how they are almost never moved from the group they start out in.

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/108013/chapters/What-Tracking-Is-and-How-to-Start-Dismantling-It.aspx