Track placement: How the "sorting machine" works in Israel

The differentiation of students into high school tracks is a critical point of transition in their educational careers. In Israel this transitional point is accentuated by the rigid structure of tracks and their different academic credentials at the end of high school. This article investigates the determinants of track placement in Israel and is based on data for approximately 4,500 ninth-grade graduates in a national sample of junior high schools. In specific, it investigates whether the process of sorting students and assigning them to tracks is meritocratic, that is, based on their ability and academic performance or whether ascriptive factors, namely, family social background and gender, also affect the decision. The findings suggest that, though ability and academic performance are strong predictors of track placement, it is also significandy affected by the student's socioeconomic status (SES), ethnic origin, and gender: students of higher SES, students of Western origin, and females have a better chance of being placed in academic tracks. These effects and especially their differential power in determining placement in various tracks are discussed in relation to structural features of the Israeli educational system.