Tracking.

Amelia struggled in Algebra 2.   A math teacher even told her, "You'll never be any good at math, but you need this to graduate."  She was persistent, and completed the course with good grades and with pride. Her lesson of persistence and of the difficult lesson that, "I can do this, it just takes effort" as well as the mathematics had a profound effect on her life. She's now the CEO of a major company she founded, developed, and has made successful.  Her company has contracts with hotel chains and airline companies.

Allery Yazzie was placed in a lower level math class as an 8th grader.  As a member of the Navajo (Dinee) Nation living on the res, his style was different. His 8th grade teacher didn't see his abilities through the cultural differences. An admissions officer from Stanford was directed to him early in Allery's senior year of high school; he recently graduated from Stanford University.

Brian Gonzales was placed in a lower level math class in 9th grade.  In 10th grade, his ability to reason abstractly kicked in and he was shooting the lights out in his lower-level class.  But he was unable to double-up in math and remained a year behind his peers in math, eliminating the possibility of taking Calculus as a senior, reducing his college choices (selective colleges ask for a year of Calculus on student transcripts), and making the possibility of majoring in mathematics a more distant goal.

Edwina thought she didn't need math at all (and had been doing poorly, so why take it?) but found the Algebra 2 teacher attractive, so she took the class so she could spend an hour looking at him each day.  In college, she discovered that she was pretty good at math and was able to include a minor in mathematics with her Engineering degree.

Who determines tracking?  The higher paid careers require more math and STEM classes -- so when we make tracking choices, we ultimately determine who will be in that higher paying career.  Edwina's thinking clearly illustrates one of the problems with having students consider their curricular choices prematurely; teachers may have an unconscious or conscious bias that does not serve the people of color or the girls who populate their classrooms.  Yes, I'm going there: I am saying that tracking students can be racist and sexist or perpetuate erroneous notions that girls or people of color "can't do math." Furthermore, there are times when students are "tracked" prematurely.  Tracking prior to Algebra 2 is clearly too early for most students; many people acquire abstract reasoning closer to their 18th year instead of their 15th year.  Tracking can limit students whose abilities are not yet fully realized by themselves or their instructors.