ADOLESCENCEfor future education), and scope (the extent to
which students are assigned to the same track
across subjects and through time). Scope—par-
ticularly the extent to which students are in the
same track across grade levels—predicts math and
verbal achievement, when earlier scores of achieve-
ment are controlled.(Gamoran 1992).
In turn, these differences in educational achieve-
ment largely reflect socialization and allocation
processes (for a useful review, see Gamoran 1996).
Socialization refers to systematically different edu-
cational experiences across tracks. Allocation re-
fers to the decisions made by teachers to assign
students to tracks, assignments that provide infor-
mation to students about their abilities and that
elicit differential responses from others. That is,
students of differing ability are assigned to differ-
ent educational opportunities, which in turn cre-
ates inequalities in outcomes, even if initial differ-
ences in ability are taken into account. Unfortunately,
tracking systems are often unfair in the sense that
students of similar ability are assigned to different
tracks, and assignments may be based on factors
other than intellectual talents and interests (see
Entwisle and Alexander 1993). Furthermore, sta-
tus allocations from primary through tertiary school
and to the labor force are remarkably consistent
(Kerckhoff 1993). The advantages or disadvan-
tages of one’s position in the educational and
occupational systems cumulate as individuals in-
creasingly diverge in their educational and labor
market attainments. Thus, educational tracks can
exert substantial influence on socioeconomic
achievements throughout the life course.
Pathways in the workplace. Work responsi-
bilities have always indicated one’s status in the life
course. Through the early nineteenth century in
America, young people began performing chores
as early as possible in childhood and often as-
sumed considerable work responsibilities by age
seven, either on the farm or as a servant in another
household. Many youth were fully incorporated
into the workforce with the onset of physical ma-
turity, in the mid- to late teens (Kett 1977). During
this same period, however, agricultural opportuni-
ties waned in the Northeast while expansions in
commerce, manufacturing, and construction pro-
vided new employment for youth in and around
cities. Many families adopted economic strategies
whereby parents and children were involved in
complex combinations of farming, work in facto-
ries, and other sources of wage labor (Prude 1983)
or whereby entire families were recruited into
factory work (Hareven 1982; for the case of Eng-
land, see Anderson 1971; Smelser 1959).The second Industrial Revolution, commenc-
ing after the Civil War and extending to World
War I, led in part to less reliance on children as
factory workers (Osterman 1979). Technological
innovations in the workplace—the use of internal
combustion engines, electric power, and continu-
ous-processing techniques—created an economic
context conducive to the consolidation of primary
schools in the life course as many youth jobs were
eliminated by mechanization (Troen 1985) and
manufacturers required more highly skilled em-
ployees (Minge-Kalman 1978). These economic
factors operated in concert with progressive politi-
cal movements, as well as cultural, demographic,
social, and legal changes (Hogan 1981; Zelizer
1985), all of which fueled debates about the appro-
priate role of youth in the workplace. These de-
bates continue to the present, particularly focus-
ing on the work involvements of high school
students (for useful overviews, see Institute of
Medicine/National Research Council 1998; Mortimer
and Finch 1996). Today, almost all adolescents
work in paid jobs and time commitments to the
workplace can be substantial (Bachman and
Schulenberg 1993; Manning 1990). Whereas youth
work at the beginning of the twentieth century
often centered around agriculture and involved
family, kin, and neighbors, today’s adolescent is
more frequently employed in ‘‘entry-level’’ jobs
among unrelated adults in the retail and restau-
rant sectors. These changes have prompted argu-
ments that contemporary adolescent work inter-
feres significantly with the basic developmental
tasks of youth.Yet the transition to paid work represents a
large step toward autonomy and can promote a
sense of contribution, of egalitarianism, and of
being ‘‘grown up’’ among youth. Although very
little research has examined the adolescent work
career, several generalizations are currently plausi-
ble. First, adolescents have work careers in that
they typically progress from informal work (e.g.,
babysitting and yard work for neighbors) to a
surprisingly diverse set of occupations as seniors
in high school, a trend that is accompanied by an