Detracking: The Social Construction of Ability, Cultural Politics, and Resistance to Reform

TLDR

Detracking reforms challenge both the technical and normative/political dimensions of schooling. The study argues that detracking confronts power, control, and legitimacy issues manifested in ideological struggles over knowledge, intelligence, ability, and merit, and urges a reexamination of the assumption that resistance to opportunities for low‑income and minority children stems from rational cost‑benefit calculations. The authors link prevailing race and class norms shaping educators’, parents’, and students’ views of intelligence, ability, and giftedness to the local political context of detracking. The three‑year longitudinal case study of ten mixed secondary schools reveals that ideological factors shape resistance to detracking, challenging the notion that such resistance is based solely on rational cost‑benefit calculations.

Abstract

Structural changes necessary in detracking efforts challenge not only the technical dimensions of schooling, but also the normative and political dimensions. We argue that detracking reform confronts fundamental issues of power, control, and legitimacy that are played out in ideological struggles over the meaning of knowledge, intelligence, ability, and merit. This article presents results from a three-year longitudinal case study of ten racially and socioeconomically mixed secondary schools participating in detracking reform. We connect prevailing norms about race and social class that inform educators’, parents’, and students’ conceptions of intelligence, ability, and giftedness with the local political context of detracking. By examining these ideological aspects of detracking we make a case for reexamining common presumptions that resistance to policies providing greater opportunities to low-income and minority children is driven by rational estimates of the learning costs and benefits associated with such reforms.