A program for boosting their pro- ductivity might have been launched. Imagine if the problem had been framed as the lack of technical expertise to tackle students' difficulties with basic reading and math. An aggressive intervention might have been launched, with full funding for remedial classes of five or six students taught by specially trained experts. These options were foreclosed when tracking was identified as the problem and detracking as the solution. The state's position on tracking, however, is not the last word.
Schools are free-standing policymaking bodies.
They consider decisions in their own right, not simply implement the decisions of others. School leaders responded to the arguments framed in the tracking debate and formulated policies to match their school's institutional characteristics including urbanicity and socioeconomic level. They crafted policies com- patible with their school's grade configuration and student population. Par- ents were also influential. Schools where parents were actively involved with policymaking tended to hold onto tracking in academic subjects.