@EdWorkingPaper{ai25-1325,
title = "Creating Classes: Elementary school classroom assignments and their implications for student access to high-quality teaching",
author = "Christopher Brooks, Thurston Domina, Lora Cohen-Vogel, Cari Carson, Matthew G. Springer",
institution = "Annenberg Institute at Brown University",
number = "1325",
year = "2025",
month = "November",
URL = "http://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai25-1325",
abstract = {We investigate the distribution of students across classrooms in North Carolina elementary schools. While tracking is ubiquitous and well-documented in secondary education, limited evidence exists regarding cross-classroom clustering in elementary schools and its consequences. Consistent with qualitative evidence suggesting that educators seek to create demographically balanced classrooms, we find that students are distributed quite evenly across their schools’ classrooms based on race, ethnicity, and family economic background. However, we find that some elementary schools create classrooms in which students are clustered based on their prior achievement as well as their eligibility for gifted education or special education services. This clustering is most prominent in large schools, schools with highly experienced teachers, and schools in which parents have a high degree of influence. Skills-based classroom clustering is associated with inequalities in student access to high-quality teaching. These findings extend the study of classroom-level categorical inequalities to the elementary grades.},
}