Selected by the American School Board Journal as a €œMust Read€ book when it was first published and named one of 60 €œBooks of the Century€ by the University of South Carolina Museum of Education for its influence on American education, this provocative, carefully documented work shows how tracking€•the system of grouping students for instruction on the basis of ability€•reflects the class and racial inequalities of American society and helps to perpetuate them. For this new edition, Jeannie Oakes has added a new Preface and a new final chapter in which she discusses the €œtracking wars€ of the last twenty years, wars in which Keeping Track has played a central role.

From reviews of the first edition:
€œShould be read by anyone who wishes to improve schools.€€•M. Donald Thomas, American School Board Journal
€œ[This] engaging [book] . . . has had an influence on educational thought and policy that few works of social science ever achieve.€€•Tom Loveless in The Tracking Wars
€œShould be read by teachers, administrators, school board members, and parents.€€•Georgia Lewis, Childhood Education
€œValuable. . . . No one interested in the topic can afford not to attend to it.€€•Kenneth A. Strike, Teachers College Record