Hanna Dumont

Tracking Effects Depend on Tracking Type An International Comparison of Students’ Mathematics Self-Concept

The aim of the present study was to examine how different types of tracking— between-school streaming, within-school streaming, and course-by-course tracking—shape students’ mathematics self-concept. This was done in an internationally comparative framework using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). After controlling for individual and track mean achievement, results indicated that generally for students in course-by-course tracking, high-track students had higher mathematics self-concepts and low-track students had lower mathematics self-concepts. For students in between-school and within-school streaming, the reverse pattern was found. These findings suggest a solution to the ongoing debate about the effects of tracking on students’ academic self-concept and suggest that the reference groups to which students compare themselves differ according to the type of tracking.

Fish Swimming Into the Ocean: How Tracking Relates to Students’ Self-Beliefs and School Disengagement at the End of Schooling.

In this study, we analyzed how secondary school tracking relates to students’ self-beliefs (i.e., their academic self-concepts in different domains and their beliefs regarding their labor market chances) and school disengagement during a time period that has received little attention in educational psychological research on tracking: when students are at the end of schooling and on the verge of entering the labor market. In doing so, we disentangled 2 distinguishing features of tracking: tracks as social contexts (operationalized via track level and the mean achievement of students’ schoolmates) and tracks as pathways to different future opportunities (operationalized via educational certificates). Using questionnaire, achievement, and administrative school data from 2,155 students from 29 low-track schools, 23 intermediate-track schools, and 35 comprehensive schools in Berlin, Germany, we found educational certificates to be the most important factor shaping students’ self-beliefs and school disengagement. Irrespective of their individual achievement, their schoolmates’ achievement, and their track level, students who received the intermediate school-leaving certificate had higher academic self-concepts, believed that their certificate would give them better chances of success in the labor market, and were less disengaged from school than students who received the low school-leaving certificate. In contrast, students’ track level did not serve as a predictor for the outcomes considered. The achievement of students’ schoolmates (i.e., the big-fish-little-pond effect) was only relevant for students’ academic self-concepts and not for students’ self-beliefs regarding labor market entry or their school disengagement.

What happens to the fish’s achievement in a little pond? A simultaneous analysis of class-average achievement effects on achievement and academic self-concept

Empirical studies have demonstrated that students who are taught in a group of students with higher average achievement benefit in terms of their achievement. However, there is also evidence showing that being surrounded by high-achieving students has a negative effect on students’ academic self-concept, also known as the big-fish–little-pond effect. In view of the reciprocal relationship between achievement and academic self-concept, the present study aims to scrutinize how the average achievement of a class affects students’ achievement and academic self-concept, and how that, in turn, affects subsequent achievement and academic self-concept. Using a sample of 6,463 seventh-graders from 285 classes in Germany, multilevel path models showed that the class-average achievement at the beginning of the school year positively affected individual achievement in the middle and at the end of the school year, and negative effects on academic self-concept occurred only at the beginning of Grade 7, but not later in the school year. In addition, mediation analyses revealed that the effects of class-average achievement on students’ achievement and academic self-concept at the end of the school year were mediated by midterm achievement, but not by midterm academic self-concept. This pattern was found for mathematics, biology, physics, and English as a foreign language. The results of our study indicate that the consequences for students of belonging to a group of high-achieving students should be analyzed with respect to both academic self-concept and achievement.

Schooling: Impact on Cognitive and Motivational Development

This article is a revision of the previous edition article by F.E. Weinert, volume 20, pp. 13589–13594,

Recent Developments in School Tracking Practices in Germany: An Overview and Outlook on Future Trends

Grouping students into different learning groups according to their achievement levels, often referred to as ability grouping or tracking, is an almost universal feature of secondary school structures. Explicit school tracking, i.e., providing different school types according to different levels of ability, is one way to implement ability grouping in school systems. Germany is still considered the prototypical example of explicit school tracking, often in reference to its three-tier structure. However, many are unaware that this structure is hardly present anymore. In recent decades, tracking practices in secondary school structures have been subject to substantial discussion and changes in Germany. As a result, several German states (Länder) have changed their tracking practices and now differ in the extent to which they implement explicit tracking. The article gives an overview of the specific structures of and changes in tracking practices and explores how the system in Germany can be described, both historically and currently. It also gives an outlook on the political and educational implications of these changes.