Literature Review #1
Citation:
Betts, Julian R., (2011), “The Economics of Tracking in Education”, in Hanushek, Eric A., Stephen Machin and Ludger Woessmann (Eds.), Handbook of the Economics Of Education, Volume 3, Amsterdam: North Holland, pp. 341-381. (found on article excerpt)
Betts, Julian, Eric A. Hanushek, Stephen Machin, and Ludger Woessman. Handbook of the Economics of Education. Vol. 3. Amsterdam: North Holland, 2011. Print. (MLA citation)
In Ballantine and Spade’s piece, Understanding Education through Sociological Theory, macro-level theories are discussed in detail. One theory that stands out is referred to as the labeling theory, which highlights the sense of self that youth ranging from the age of 6 to 18 develop in school. In particular, it addresses the notion of how labeling children may likely lead to self-fulfilling prophesies. For instance, if a child is labeled as less capable or more incompetent than his fellow peers, his sense of self may plummet as a result and lead to him never performing to his maximum potential at any point in his academic career.
The labeling theory resonates with the idea of tracking of students in the education system. Tracking in American education typically involves grouping and labeling sets of students as low-performing, average, or high-performing. Based on several previous studies in addition to the research carried out by the authors of the paper, The Economics of Tracking in Education, it is apparent that tracking “increases inequality without boosting efficiency.” In particular, one researcher stated that when comparing students categorized in the “upper group” in schools that utilize ability tracking, they outperformed similar students in other schools that did not use tracking. However, the same researcher also found that the students grouped into the lower ability category in the same schools that