Tracking (education) - Track Assignment

Track Assignment

The ways by which students are assigned to tracks and the amount of fluidity within the tracking system varies by school and occurs in a variety of manners within individual schools. While some schools assign students to a particular track and do not allow for mobility between tracks, other schools allow students to be placed into an advanced class for one subject and a lower-ranking class for another. Non-academic factors such as schedule conflicts often affect students' track assignments as well.

Within some schools, tracking occurs in a variety of manners. Secondary schools, in general, tend to assign students to high tracks based on objective criteria, while low-track students are often placed using more-arbitrary measures. In some cases, placement is based entirely on student decision. In secondary schools in particular, test scores from primary schools may be used to determine a student's secondary track. Counselors may also work with students to choose a particular class that in turn puts them on a given track. In both primary and secondary schools, parents and peers may influence academic choices even more than guidance counselors, by encouraging students with similar backgrounds, whether academic, vocational, ethnic, religious, racial, etc., to stay together. Additionally, grouping may be done by teacher and counselor recommendation without the students' knowledge of any difference in course sections available. Though this is sometimes the case, students are often aware of ability grouping that occurs in this manner.