On paper, California's student body is incredibly diverse. On closer inspection, it is well sorted. Some of that sorting is intentional — is that a good thing? Selectivity, diversity, and inclusion are competing priorities in the history of American public education.

Throughout childhood, students grow accustomed to being sorted, or to sorting themselves: by age, by gender, by height, by neighborhood. Not so long ago, students were explicitly sorted by race. As discussed in Lesson 5.1, today the sorting persists by zip code or community, often with similar effect.

Within schools and districts, schools routinely sort students academically. Most colleges and some high schools are selective; students must demonstrate their ability and commitment to gain admission. In many high schools Advanced Placement courses are the academic equivalent of making the varsity team, and not all students make the team. Other schools allow students to be admitted into these more challenging courses based on student and parent choice. 

What is tracking?

The practice of grouping students according to readiness or ability is sometimes known as tracking, particularly where groupings persist from one class to the next. Tracking is common in elementary and middle grades in the form of reading groups or reading levels. In middle and high school grades, tracking is common for math classes.

Tracking is generally out of favor among education equity advocates, especially in mathematics. In its place, education leaders tend to favor differentiated instruction, where teachers work to serve multiple learning levels in the same class. Not all educators agree that this improves results for students. Arguments in favor of tracking can be found in this article from Education Next and this one from the Atlantic.

Selective policies tend to benefit those who ask

Some schools work to attract similar birds of a feather as part of an educational strategy. For example, some schools promote their emphasis on the arts. Others promise an enhanced focus on technology. Schools that emphasize Gifted And Talented programs (GATE) attempt to identify students with exceptional academic promise and provide extra learning opportunities appropriate for their needs.

Sort if you like, but don't expect extra money

In the past, both the federal budget and the state budget included funds to support programs for gifted students. As we discuss in length in the Ed100 blog, federal and state funding once supported gifted programs, but that is no longer the case. Where gifted programs exist in California, they are locally funded.

Co-ed schools, or keep 'em separated?

Single-sex schools attract attendance with the premise that simplifying the social framework for their students can boost academic focus. The available evidence suggests that all other things being equal, there could be some merit to this theory. Some studies show academic achievement is generally higher in single-sex school classrooms than in co-ed ones, but the research finding is not straightforward. Like most social science, the data are messy and the validity of this conclusion can be disputed.

California’s first new single-sex public school in twenty years opened in Los Angeles in 2016. It’s an all-girls school. California law prohibits sex-segregated schools, but federal law permits them. LAUSD obtained a California waiver from the State Board of Education to open the school.

Selective public schools are rare

It is common for private schools to be selective, but selective public schools are rare. In California there are very few of these schools. One of the most famous is San Francisco's Lowell High School. In 2022, several members of the board of San Francisco Unified were recalled, in part for eliminating the school’s selective admission system. Read more about it in the Ed100 blog.

Stand up for yourself

At the risk of stating the obvious, selective policies tend to benefit those who ask to be selected. Selecting anything (or being selected for something) usually requires action, even a small one like raising a hand, filling out a form, or talking to a teacher. These small barriers requiring student self-advocacy or parent advocacy tend to reinforce patterns of selection, even unintentionally.

Each school, intentionally or unintentionally, develops its own reputation for the ways in which it is selective and the ways in which it is diverse. In cases where parents have a choice about where their children attend school, they respond to these signals. Parents can influence the balance their local schools strike between these two competing values.

The next lesson will examine the role of special schools for children at risk.

Updated June 2018, December 2018, November 2019, July 2022.