that movement between tracks also reflects inequalities, primarily
along gender and class lines. Track mobility, which occurs mainly
between school years, reflects students’ academic achievement, as
evidenced by grades and test scores. Yet controlling for these factors,
girls, older students, and students from families with fewer socioeco-
nomic resources are at higher risk for changing to lower tracks over
time and for dropping out of tracked subjects (Hallinan, 1996).
Learning. In addition to initial inequities in track assignments and
inequities in track mobility, academic differentiation across tracks
produces differences in achievement. The quality of instruction,
for example, is argued to be inferior in the lower tracks (Oakes,
Gamoran, & Page, 1992). Track differences in the nature and effects
of classroom instruction contribute to the widening achievement
gaps among students assigned to different levels (Gamoran et al.,
1995). Other features of the tracking system are also important
(Gamoran, 1992; Jones, Vanfossen, & Ensminger, 1995; Rosenbaum,
1996). For example, track immobility, or the extent to which stu-
dents remain in the same track over time, produces greater in-
equality in verbal and math achievement between tracks and lowers
the overall math achievement of students in a school.
Despite widespread criticism of tracking, vocational coursework
in high schools may offer some students advantages they might not
otherwise have when seeking employment after high school. Voca-
tional education is associated with lower rates of college attendance
and thus less likelihood of employment in the professions and man-
agerial occupations. But for students not planning to attend college,
it may provide an important safety net (Arum & Shavit, 1995).
Vocational education reduces the risk of unemployment and in-
creases the likelihood of employment as a skilled rather than un-
skilled worker. Vocational education teachers’ contacts with local
employers may help students enter jobs after high school that put
them on a path toward higher earnings over time (Rosenbaum,
DeLuca, Miller, & Roy, 1999).
46 CAREER CHOICE AND DEVELOPMENT