Students in the United States and Japan from high and middle socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds are afforded greater academic opportunities due to the systemic presence of hegemony in public schools (Darvin and Norton in "J Lang Identity Educ" 13(2):111-117, 2014). Minority and immigrant students, the majority coming from low SES, are more likely to suffer the negative effects of tracking. This paper explains how Mexican immigrant students in the United States, and Korean students in Japan are tracked into lower-level courses throughout their educational careers. Using critical structuralism as a theoretical framework, the paper analyzes the two educational systems and explains the implications of tracking on students' access to higher education. The paper presents mediating mechanisms against the negative effects of lower-level tracking, while arguing for college preparatory education for Mexican and Korean immigrants in the U.S. and Japan respectively.