Dominant achievement goals across tracks in high school

The dominant achievement goals (DAGs) of 7008 students in the third grade of Dutch secondary education (US grade 9) were investigated, based on Elliot & McGregors’ 2 × 2 framework (2001), in relation to track-level and motivational variables. We found the mastery-approach goal and the performance-approach goal, generally considered adaptive, to be more prominent among students in lower tracks. In contrast, avoidance goals were more common in higher tracks. Most notably, in the highest track, the mastery-avoidance goal was the most prominent. Additionally, we found that students with a dominant performance-approach goal scored highest on almost all motivational variables examined; students without a DAG scored mostly second highest. The implications of these findings are discussed.