Are tracking recommendations biased? A review of teachers’ role in the creation of inequalities in tracking decisions

Sorting students into hierarchically ordered tracks or streams on the basis of their academic performance (i.e., tracking) is ubiquitous in educational systems, and oftentimes based on teachers’ track recommendations. International surveys indicate that tracking is associated with educational inequalities. To determine if inequalities in tracking may be due to teacher recommendations being biased against students from disadvantaged socio-economic and/or ethnic backgrounds, we conducted a systematic review of 26 recent articles on tracking recommendations and students’ socio-economic or ethnic background. We find that teacher recommendations are biased against students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, yet evidence with respect to ethnic biases is more mixed. We also conducted an integrative review to examine which factors may account for social and ethnic inequalities in teacher tracking recommendations. We conclude that students’, parents’ and teachers’ attitudes and behaviours play a role in tracking recommendations but cannot fully account for the inequality in these recommendations. We discuss promising areas for future study, and argue that research may want to focus on finding institutional moderators in order to combat biases in educational institutions.