ETHNIC-DIFFERENCES IN ACADEMIC RETRACKING - A 4-YEAR LONGITUDINAL-STUDY

The data for this article were taken from a multiple cohort, longitudi nal evaluation of a school reform experiment termed Project 2000, a co operative effort of businesses and the Kern High School District of Ca lifornia, designed to improve the quality of education for high school students, The project involved ''the forgotten half,'' those students scoring between the 25th and 65th percentiles on a standardized achie vement test, who were usually placed in the general or vocational curr iculum tracks. Preliminary results are included for the first cohort, alpha, Our data strongly suggest that, irrespective of race, these ave rage to below-average students can prosper in a more rigorous academic environment, with positive benefits to their academic performance. Mi drange minority students prospered as well as, or better than, White s tudents in a modest curriculum reform that retracked general education students into a college-preparatory curriculum.