STARS and tracking: An evaluation and proposal for alternative student grouping

Educators, researchers and theorists regularly prescribe doing away with tracking, but it continues to be used almost universally. Recent reports on restructuring schools list tracking on their agendas for change; many call for modifications in tracking rather than its outright elimination. The S.T.A.R.S. (Students and Teachers for the Advancement of R track Students) was initiated as an intervention program during the 1988-89 school year at Cherry Hill High School West in Cherry Hill, New Jersey as a result of the growing concerns about the status of the middle level or R track students. This group has been considered at risk based on a history of poor attendance, poor academic performance, poor discipline records, and a generally apathetic feeling towards school and extracurricular participation. During the 1988-89 school year fifty of eighty-six freshmen scheduled for all R track courses in English, world civilizations, algebra, earth science and foreign language were randomly selected to participate in the S.T.A.R.S. program. A case study approach was used to compare R level student who did not participate. A comparison of the two groups was made over their four-year high school experience (1988-92). The chief question explored was: What was the high school experience of students who participated in S.T.A.R.S. as opposed to those who did not participate? Qualitative and quantitative methods were used in this study to investigate and describe the impact of school programs on students\u27 attitudes, behaviors and achievement. Two methodological strategies were employed in collecting data for this study: (1) focus group interviews; and (2) surveys. In addition, quantitative methods were used to report information about program records and documents. The data analyses are presented separately. The quantitative methods are utilized to complement the qualitative methods. Though results of this study will indicate some strong evidence that a one-year exposure to S.T.A.R.S. had a positive effect on its participants in certain aspects, overall it did not yield robust positive results. The S.T.A.R.S. program, as it was implemented, was an extremely limited intervention, being confined to a single year in the student participant\u27s high school career. S.T.A.R.S. was not a full-fledged alternative to tracking, but, rather, a peripheral adjunct to an existing ability grouping arrangement, meant to mitigate the negative effects of tracking