Tracking and students' friendships

We investigate the means by which academic tracking influences students'friendship choices. We argue that the link between tracking and friendship choice is due to three dyadic bases of interpersonal attraction: propinquity, similarity, and status. Our results suggest that track placements affect friendship choices by encouraging more interaction within tracks, by causing a greater similarity among students within tracks, and because tracks are a generally recognized status hierarchy among students. Our results also indicate that these influences interact; the effects of propinquity, similarity, and status each depend on the level of the other two factors.

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