Curricular Tracking, Students’ Academic Identity, and School Belonging

Abstract

Curricular tracking is common in many countries, yet this school practice might have unintended consequences for students’ attitudes toward school. We examined the changes in adolescents’ school belonging among sixth graders placed in honors versus regular math, with academic identity as a mediator in this relation. Early adolescents ( N = 322; 72% White; 164 girls) in the southeastern United States completed measures of school belonging and academic identity at the beginning and end of their sixth-grade year. With parent education, prior math achievement, and prior school belonging controlled, honors math placement predicted increases in school belonging from the beginning to the end of students’ sixth-grade year, and this association was positively mediated by academic identity. Results of this study are important for further understanding the influences of tracking on students’ motivational beliefs.

Impact of Face-Recognition-Based Access Control System on College Students’ Sense of School Identity and Belonging During COVID-19 Pandemic

“…In this study, school belonging is a combination of four senses-Belonging with Peers, Instructor Support, Engagement in the Community, and Relatedness of Self with School-which all showing consistent predictive power. That school identity predicts school belonging is in line with previous research ( Legette and Kurtz-Costes, 2021 ).…”

“…In contrast, a strong sense of scientific identity can be a psychological resource to enhance students’ sense of belonging in science courses, as well as to promote the academic performance of minority students. Legette and Kurtz-Costes (2021) studied the changes in the sense of belonging between excellent students and ordinary students in 6th Grade in math, confirming the predictive effect of academic identity which could been seen a part of school identity on the changes of the sense of belonging in the school. In addition, Koenka et al provided further evidence for the relationship between school identity and school belonging, that is, ethnic identity certainly predicted a stronger sense of school belonging ( Koenka et al, 2020 ).…”

“…What’s more, this theory extends the theoretical boundary of the halo effect to the school identity, that is, the local conditions of the school will affect the overall perception of school; (b) this research has enriched the theoretical connotation and influence of school identity. It is found that school identity is an important source of school belonging, and this relationship is extremely stable ( Legette and Kurtz-Costes, 2021 ).…”

The Impact of Academic Development Structures on Self-Perception: Honors Versus Nonhonors University Students

“…The methods by which gifted students are identified have also been inconsistent and can create issues when these specific groups are focused on. Studies on giftedness are hard to conceptualize and compare because of the variance in how giftedness is defined and measured (e.g., IQ tests, standardized tests, curricular tracking, subjective criteria; Hoge & Renzulli, 1993;Legette & Kurtz-Costes, 2021;Litster & Roberts, 2011). When looking at the collegiate level, comparisons between honors and nonhonors students are understudied (Kool et al, 2017;Wolfensberger, 2012).…”

Impact of Chinese College Students’ Professional Identity on Their Academic Achievement: Career Maturity as a Mediator

“…The process involves learners transferring emotions and attitudes to their major (Wu, 2020). Major self-concept is defined as students' perceptions of their major competence, and professional identity strongly reflects student perceptions of which majors they are capable of achieving academic success in (Legette & Kurtz-Costes, 2021). Jensen and Jetten (2016) noted that professional identity is crucial for college students to achieve good learning behaviors, feel confident, and maintain learning motivation.…”