Ability Tracking and Class Mobility in High School Mathematics: The Case of Low Achievers

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dc.contributor.authorShapiro, Bradley Thomasen
dc.contributor.committeechairFloyd, William J.en
dc.contributor.committeememberNorton, Anderson H. IIIen
dc.contributor.committeememberTideman, Nicolausen
dc.contributor.departmentMathematicsen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T20:35:42Zen
dc.date.adate2009-05-29en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T20:35:42Zen
dc.date.issued2009-05-01en
dc.date.rdate2009-05-29en
dc.date.sdate2009-05-08en
dc.description.abstractThe goal of this paper is to evaluate commonly held criticisms of the practice of ability tracking in high school mathematics. To do so, I employ data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 and follow-ups to model classroom selection and education production. This paper will focus only on the causes and effects of tracking on students who were tracked as low-ability in eighth grade. From this, we can see how many students, if any, switched out of the low-ability track by tenth grade and how various switches have affected their test scores in mathematics. I find that students exercise mobility between ability-tracks as late as tenth grade and that ability-track placement is largely determined by test scores. In addition, I find evidence that there would be minimal, if any, test score improvement among low-ability students if they were all moved to a class of heterogeneous ability.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.identifier.otheretd-05082009-135138en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05082009-135138/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/32393en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartShapiro_MS_Thesis_1_2009.pdfen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectEconomics of Educationen
dc.subjectSecondary School Mathematicsen
dc.subjectAbility Trackingen
dc.titleAbility Tracking and Class Mobility in High School Mathematics: The Case of Low Achieversen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineMathematicsen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

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