"Acceleration and tracking are not the same thing. Tracking sorts students into qualitatively different pathways, where some are and some are not on track to go to a four year institution - where the "smart kids" get treated as those to preference and accelerate and the "average kids" or "low kids" are left to lag, or to fend and fight based on their own community's and family's resilience and understanding of institutional education. We as authors believe that the literature of tracking and acceleration are conflated. Tracking does harm, and acceleration can provide access if the classes are kept as heterogeneous as possible. Educators, journalists, researchers, parents, and activist groups need to stop conflating these terms, and treating them as synonymous"-- Provided by publisher.