Sociodemographic Diversity, Correlated Achievement, and De Facto Tracking

De facto tracking-the association between students' courses in disparate subjects, regardless of the decline of institutional mechanisms that organized de jure tracking-is a contested feature of secondary schools. Some analysts imply that de facto tracking arises simply because students who do well in one area often do well in other areas. Other analysts contend that pronounced tracking systems maintain racial, ethnic, and social-class segregation and thus that de facto tracking is driven, in part, by the sociodemographic composition of schools. This article investigates the school-level correlates of de facto tracking. An analysis of data from High School and Beyond suggests that the higher the correlation between students' achievements in different domains, the more pronounced the de facto tracking. However, racial-ethnic and socioeconomic diversity are also positively associated with de facto tracking, even though the achievement correlation is controlled. These findings suggest that de facto tracking may be maintained by both technical and demographic aspects of schools, both of which must be considered in any evaluation of tracking.