Princeton Student Studies Tracking at Columbia

For her senior thesis at Princeton University, Amira Karriem compared the performance of selected students at two schools: Columbia and West Orange High School. Karriem, a Columbia graduate, chose the schools to study the racial dynamics of tracking systems, the practice of separating students into classes based academic proficiency. Columbia employs tracking; West Orange got rid of the practice over three years ago.

Karriem, who was in advanced classes at CHS, found that African American students tended to be placed in lower levels.

"I had the privilege of being in the advanced level at Columbia High School ... but when I looked around my classroom I usually wondered why I was the only black person in the class, while many of my friends were in classes with nothing but black students," she said in a press statement released by Princeton.

For more information on Karriem's study, click here.