More than 10,000 students were followed from the final year of primary education (6th grade) until the fourth year (10th grade) of secondary education. The aim was threefold: to examine the correspondence between the teacher recommendations (track advice) and the actual track of students in secondary education, to investigate which background characteristics, cognitive, motivational, and social -emotional factors (measured in 6th grade) can predict whether students switch to a higher or lower track, and to investigate which background characteristics, cognitive, motivational and social-emotional variables (measured in 6th grade) could differentiate between a high risk group and other students. Secondary analyses were performed using the COO...